16. An-Nahl

The main reason for man’s going astray is his underestimation of God, Lord of the Universe. Many wrong beliefs have come into existence because God was judged to be a lesser entity than He really is. It is the result of such underestimation of God that people, though believing in God, remain fearless of Him. They form the belief about very ordinary things that these will be a source of proximity to God and that all the bounties of the Hereafter will be allotted to them as their share. The belief is entertained that a thing which does not make even an ordinary man happy, will please God. This amounts to adding arrogance to wrongdoing, which can never be pardoned by God.

When God’s messenger calls for the truth, his addressees feel that his call is clashing with their traditional religion. Now, since they are familiar with this traditional religion and since many of their interests are attached to this religion, they want to continue to adhere to it. At the same time Satan furnishes them with beautiful words by which they can prove that rejecting the Prophet’s religion and adhering to their traditional religion is justified. If a man accepts the word of the prophet in a straightforward manner, this amounts to making God his companion. On the contrary, if he takes the help of beautiful interpretations, to reject it, this amounts to making a friend of Satan. By sending the last of the prophets, God has arranged for people to find the true divine path amidst the jungle of religious differences. This situation prevails even today. If a person is in search of the way of God and for this purpose he studies the different religions, he will definitely become confused, as the teachings of other religions, in the form they exist today, have serious differences among themselves. The seeker of Truth is therefore unable to understand what he should treat as correct or incorrect. This being so, the religion brought by the last of the prophets is a blessing for the subjects of God, because unlike other religions, his religion is the ‘preserved’ one. From the point of view of history, it is completely authentic. It can, therefore, be taken for granted that the religion brought by the Prophet is, in reality, the religion which God desires his subjects to adopt.

When God’s messenger calls for the truth, his addressees feel that his call is clashing with their traditional religion. Now, since they are familiar with this traditional religion and since many of their interests are attached to this religion, they want to continue to adhere to it. At the same time Satan furnishes them with beautiful words by which they can prove that rejecting the Prophet’s religion and adhering to their traditional religion is justified. If a man accepts the word of the prophet in a straightforward manner, this amounts to making God his companion. On the contrary, if he takes the help of beautiful interpretations, to reject it, this amounts to making a friend of Satan. By sending the last of the prophets, God has arranged for people to find the true divine path amidst the jungle of religious differences. This situation prevails even today. If a person is in search of the way of God and for this purpose he studies the different religions, he will definitely become confused, as the teachings of other religions, in the form they exist today, have serious differences among themselves. The seeker of Truth is therefore unable to understand what he should treat as correct or incorrect. This being so, the religion brought by the last of the prophets is a blessing for the subjects of God, because unlike other religions, his religion is the ‘preserved’ one. From the point of view of history, it is completely authentic. It can, therefore, be taken for granted that the religion brought by the Prophet is, in reality, the religion which God desires his subjects to adopt.

The system of rains and vegetation has a great lesson in it. Due to the concerted action of various factors, water vapours rise in the air and form clouds and again fall on the earth in the form of rain. Then this rain causes the growth of lush green cover on the earth. In this happening, there is firstly a lesson that, in this universe everywhere, the activism or workmanship of the one God is manifest. Had many gods been active here, there could not have been such wonderful coordination in the various forces of the universe that could result in such a unified harmonious process. The unity in the system of the universe is a clear proof of the fact that its Creator and its Lord is only one and not more than one. Secondly, there is the lesson that the power and majesty of God are so great that they can revivify a dead body; cause the growth of a lush green garden, and produce colour, fragrance and taste in dry and barren things. There is proof of unity in the first occurrence and the second one shows symbolically that for human souls also, there is similar godly ‘rain’, and that is ‘revelation’. One who wants to give a new life to his dead and dry soul, should have himself drenched in the rain of godly revelation.

A characteristic peculiar to milch animals is that whatever they eat is converted into dung and blood yet there emerges along with these a liquid, milk, which is the most valuable food for man. This is also true of the trees. Mud, water and other such things enter them and under the influence of their internal system, they take the shape of juicy fruits which hang from the branches. These occurrences are meant to remind people of God. Through them man should start seeing glimpses of His Majesty. This realization should be so intense that he should spontaneously exclaim, ‘Oh God! You cause milk to come out from non-milk. God, let favourable results emerge from the unfavourable situations I am faced with. God, you transform mud and water into fruits, please turn my valueless life into a valuable one.’

This gives a hint that the things created by God in this world can be used rightly as well as wrongly. Dates and grapes, if eaten in their natural forms, provide healthy and wholesome food, which give energy to the body and mind. But if through some human process, they are converted into intoxicants, they become harmful to the body and mind.

The honey-bee is the most wonderful masterpiece of God’s creation. It constructs its beehive to a standard pattern, strictly following the relevant mathematical principles. Then, in the best planned manner, sucks the nectar from the flowers, brings it back and, in a perfectly systematic manner, stores it in the hive. Then, in accordance with hygienic principles prepares honey, which serves as a valuable food as well as a remedy for human ailments. All this takes place in such an amazingly regulated manner that voluminous books have been written on it and still the description is not complete. The miraculous honey factory is more complicated than all the human factories and at the same time is more successful. It is run by bees who have not received any training in this technology. They are not even conscious of their own actions. This proves that there is a Being who is having this work done through the bees by giving them instructions. Anyone who observes the bees, will have a live example of God’s workmanship and will see a glimpse of God in their wonderfully meaningful activities. There is another aspect of the example of the bees given here. The bee works very hard to suck the nectar from flowers and to prepare honey which is a health-giving food for human beings. In the same manner, the servant of God should acquire wisdom from the universe by giving it deep consideration after intense observation of it, and such pieces of wisdom as he picks up should be spiritual food for him as well as a panacea for all his moral ailments. The things which are ‘nectar’ for the bees becomes intense realization (ma‘rifah) at the level of human beings.

The honey-bee is the most wonderful masterpiece of God’s creation. It constructs its beehive to a standard pattern, strictly following the relevant mathematical principles. Then, in the best planned manner, sucks the nectar from the flowers, brings it back and, in a perfectly systematic manner, stores it in the hive. Then, in accordance with hygienic principles prepares honey, which serves as a valuable food as well as a remedy for human ailments. All this takes place in such an amazingly regulated manner that voluminous books have been written on it and still the description is not complete. The miraculous honey factory is more complicated than all the human factories and at the same time is more successful. It is run by bees who have not received any training in this technology. They are not even conscious of their own actions. This proves that there is a Being who is having this work done through the bees by giving them instructions. Anyone who observes the bees, will have a live example of God’s workmanship and will see a glimpse of God in their wonderfully meaningful activities. There is another aspect of the example of the bees given here. The bee works very hard to suck the nectar from flowers and to prepare honey which is a health-giving food for human beings. In the same manner, the servant of God should acquire wisdom from the universe by giving it deep consideration after intense observation of it, and such pieces of wisdom as he picks up should be spiritual food for him as well as a panacea for all his moral ailments. The things which are ‘nectar’ for the bees becomes intense realization (ma‘rifah) at the level of human beings.

Life as it manifests itself on the earth presents many aspects—one who was non-existent comes into being in the world; then everybody dies, but not at one time. Somebody dies in childhood and another in youth and yet another in old age. Then it is a very strange occurrence that at the last stage of his life, a man loses his mental powers, his knowledge and his physical strength completely. Man is apparently free in the present world. But he has no control over any aspect of his life. All this happens to show man that perfect knowledge and power belong only to God. Man has no say in the above-mentioned type of events that occur in a man’s life: he is not capable of bringing about any change in them. This proves that whatever is happening is happening at the instance of some other being; man’s life as a whole, right from childhood up to his death, bears testimony to the fact that here all knowledge belongs to God and all power rests with God—man’s helplessness is the proof of the all-powerful existence of God.