I’m not sure why, it must have something to do with the season; spring has sprung, flowers are blooming and bees are not only all over the place outside, but flooding my timeline on social media!
They are an extremely important little creature, absolutely terrifying to me (no matter the kind), but nonetheless, their role in the “plant & animal kingdom” is crucial to the food chain and due to their job as pollinators, they are the most necessary of pests!
The “science” behind them that everyone is sharing is fascinating, but what the Quran had to say about the bees some 1,400 years ago is far more astounding!
We find in the Quran’s “Surah an-Nahl” (The Bee: 16:68-69) a statement claiming that it is the female bee which leaves the nest in order to gather together food.
Now, a person could assume that on their own, saying: “The bees that are out flying around all over the place – they could be male or female. I’m going to go with female.”
There is a one-in-two chance that statement is correct and the Quran gets it right; it’s the female bee that does that and modern science can confirm it.
But, what is so remarkable about that claim is the fact that most people didn’t hold that belief at the time the Quran was revealed!
Now, neither you or I can tell, especially with the bee whizzing by, what sex it is. Maybe the expert can, but it has only been recently discovered that it is, in fact, the male bee who does not leave the nest to gather food.
Who likes Shakespeare? I certainly don’t, but some of the characters in “Henry the Fourth” mention that bees are actually “soldiers” and have a “King”.
That’s not the case at all, but that was the common belief back then!
Today, modern science has confirmed that the bees we see out there doing their thing are actually females and return to the nest and answer to a Queen!
It took the last 300 or so years for modern science and all her advancements to figure this out!
Whereas, some 1,400 years ago, an unlettered man in the deserts of Arabia brought forth a speech/Book that he claimed was from “The Lord of the worlds”, God Almighty, Allah (subhana wa ta’alla), making all sorts of different kinds of claims.
There is a 50% chance of being right on this particular matter, with the odds being one-in-two and finally, all these years later, “modern man” is just starting to confirm and believe the things Muslims have been blessed to know and believe starting all those years ago.
It’s actually a recurring theme in the Quran to make “wild guesses” (especially for the time it was Revealed) and absolutely nail it.
With Ramadan right around the corner, Insha’Allah (God Willing), perhaps we will dive into this Divine Quality some more, if not by means of outside articles, then by diving into and immersing ourselves in the rich depths that is the Holy Book of the Muslims, the Noble Quran, on our own time and initiative.
One may also like to note that modern science has confirmed for us that bees in fact have either 16 or 32 (exact multiple) chromosomes; with the Queen, worker bees and females having 32 (women are “better” than men, right?!!!?) and drones, which hatch out of unfertilized eggs, having only 16.
We find Surah 16 (the Surah in discussion here) in the Quran to be named “The Bee”.
We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the Truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness? (41:53)
May God always guide us closer to the Truth.
– Andrew Morgan (4/26/2019)
