Houseflies

[محمد ارسلان]

 

[محمد ارسلان]

Houseflies

“O mankind! A similitude has been coined, so listen to it (carefully): Verily, those on whom you call besides Allah cannot create (even) a fly, even though they combine together for the purpose. And if the fly snatches away a thing from them, they will have no power to release it from the fly. So weak are (both) the seeker and the sought. They have not estimated Allah His rightful estimate. Verily, Allah is AllStrong, Almighty.” (Soorah Al-Hajj, 22:73-74)
The miracle was, and still is, that when this Verse was revealed, Allah issued the challenge that those that are worshipped instead of Allah, the Exalted, are incapable of creating a fly. The power of creation is limited to the Creator and none can compete with Him in that. As for the other challenge and the great miracle in this Verse, it is a scientific fact that contemporary science has only recently discovered.
When the fly eats, it excretes its saliva onto the food, which quickly mixes with it, within a time estimated at a fraction of a second, which makes it easy for the fly to suck it up with its proboscis. Hence, the food which is snatched away, even if it is insignificant and has no value, cannot be taken back because it has changed chemically and become a different substance – due to the action of this liquid – before it can be consumed by the fly. Similarly, the one who wants to take back this snatched food is too weak to do so.
There is another miracle in this Verse that has been recognized following advances in the science of entomology, which is the fly’s ability to transmit disease.
Neither man nor those that are worshipped instead of Allah, Most High, are able to create an insect as tiny as the fly. Moreover, they are not able to take back that which the fly snatches from them of food, drink, health or life. They are too weak for that, whereas Allah is Strong and Almighty, but they have not estimated Allah, the Exalted, His rightful estimate.

[from “Scientific Miracles in the Oceans & Animals” by “Yusuf Al-Hajj Ahmad”, published by Darussalam, 2010]