Part 29

The animal and tricks

It is an amazing instance of the smartness of animals that if the fox fails to obtain food, if it does not succeed in catching a prey, it fakes death and bloats its belly, so that a bird thinks it is dead and alights on its body to eat of its meat. Then the fox suddenly pounces on the bird and catches it. Another remarkable trick is that the giant fly called ‘the lion-fly’ when it sees that a fly has alighted nearby it, it stays motionless for some time, as if dead, until it thinks that the fly is content and no longer pays attention to it; it creeps softly, until it is close enough to have the fly within reach, and then it jumps on the fly and catches it.

Gelsienuses oh GLAS ed

“Lo! Allah disdains not to coin the similitude even of

Many rich morals can be drawn from the life of those animals which you: despise and underestimate! Many a sign in them exists about the Creator's kindness, mercy and wisdom. One may well ask the denier: Who inspired them with those tricks and subtle ways of catching their preys, which is their sustenance? Who

* There isa subspecies of spiders that bores for itself a vertical hole, and makes for it a door from its saliva, that it mixes with mud, so that the door is several layers, alternating silk and mud; then it digs a secret entrance to this hole, covering it with another door. If attacked, it enters the hole through the secret entrance, and closes the door behind it, so that the enemy finds nothing when it searches. So glory be to Him who taught the animal! There is also a subspecies of crab, called ‘spider of the sea’, which has its peculiar way of camouflage. As it moves along, it picks up things that happen to be on its way, and carries them on its back to camouflage itself. If placed in an aquarium with pieces of sponge, it uses a piece of the sponge to cover itself. If transferred to another aquarium with green herbs, it throws off the sponge, and replaces it with herbs. If it is transferred to a third aquarium with red herbs, it again throws off the green herbs and replaces them with red ones. In all these tricks, it seeks to take on the colour of its environment.

provided them with those tricks as a compensation for their lack of strength and ability. Who but the Gentle, the Knowing compensated them with cunning for their lack of strength and ability?

Regard now the shape of a bird’s body. Since it was destined to fly in the air, its body was made light and streamlined; it was provided with two legs not four, its fingers were made four not five, and its outlets for urination and excretion were united into one for both. Its chest was made narrow to enable it to penetrate the air wherever it turned, in the same way that a ship’s bow is narrow", to split the water easily and slide through it. Some of the feathers of a bird’s wings and tail were made long and strong in order for it to rely on them for taking off; and its whole body was covered with feathers, so that the air should penetrate through them and lift it. As its food was destined to be meat and grains that it swallows whole without chewing, it was not provided with teeth, while it was provided with a solid beak that helps it pick its food, without cracking from picking grains, or breaking from munching meat. As it does not have teeth, and swallows the grains whole and the meat raw, it was provided with extra heat in the belly to grind grains and process the meat. Because of this heat, it can do without chewing. To compare the high temperature that the bird has been provided with, you need just observe the seeds of raisins and such things as they come out of the human body whole, while they are disintegrated in the bird’s belly in a way that they completely lose their texture. Another aspect of wisdom is that the bird, rather than delivering a baby, it lays eggs, so that it can fly. If it were to conceive a baby, and _ it would remain inside its belly until the end of

" nd so is the nose of a plane and a rocket.

its term, the female bird would be big with the extra weight of pregnancy and prevented from flying. Regard, too, how great is the mercy of inspiring the bird, which is usually a roaming flying creature, with patience after laying the egg, opting to sit still on the egg " until it incubates, enduring the difficulty of detention. After the chicks have come out, it bears the hardship of picking for them, and then gathering the grains in its craw, later to insert them in the mouths of its chicks - although it does not have reflection and foresight of the future, like a human, to expect from its offspring assistance, loyalty and gratitude. This well illustrates that the bird is made to have this compassion for the chicks for a purpose that it itself does not realize, nor does it reflect on the continuation of the species.

Think about the egg, its thick yellow yolk, and its thin white; the former being the matter from which the chick develops, and the latter for its nutrition until it comes out of the egg. Reflect on the implication of this: as the chick is to grow in that enveloped shell where nothing can reach it from outside, it is provided with nutrients that will last it until it comes out.

Allah has created a bird’s wing as a miracle that bewilders thinking minds, combining lightness, strength and flexibility.

Tell me, then, Has man ever built a plane that accomplishes this level of engineering sophistication?

"A hen sits onthe egg for 21 days. Not only that, but it turns the egg every

day for the fetus to mature, so that the egg would not crack before that, and so that the vessels of the chick at the bottom should not puncture, if they remain at the bottom of the egg.

Man learned to apply this method only from imitating the hen; he learned to turn the egg over, to produce chicks in his man-made incubators. So glory be to Him, who taught the animal, so that it taught man!

The diversity of the feathers of the wing is designed to fit the different functions feathers must fulfill. Some feathers, the side ones, are designed to help a bird rise to a higher altitude; some are designed to cope with sudden maneuvers; and so forth. A bird might dispose of some of its feathers while flying to maintain balance; it may spread some to counter the turbulence of air currents.

White yolk, providing proteins and water . fich in phosphorus and water

Chalaza, two albumen spirals that absorb shocks and transmit vitellus at opposite poles of egg

Bird fetus Blastodisk : it has numerous

blood vessels. It delivers gases to 02 the embryo. It is found in human

xchange co2 enters fetus during its early stages

gases across air chamber \ 9OeS out

Tail feathers: they contrat vecring

Under tail coverls, with a gland that secretes an oily liquid

The beak, wilh an upper and lower mandible

‘Wing coverts: At the base: of wing

Primaries, growing on the farthest bone of wing

Secondaries, close to trunk

Consider now the case of the giraffe, its different organs,

resembles a_horse’s, its neck a camel's, its hooves a cow’s,

its skin a tiger’s; this has led some to the claim that it is a

hybrid resulting from impregnation of a female animal by several males of different species. They say that various

“When the giraffe is surprised with a possible danger from some fierce animal

it resorts to a wood of thorny bushes that does not harm it, because of its long

legs, while it ensures its escape.

their resemblance to various animals: its head

land species come to drink at the same place, and that the wild male animals mate with domesticated ones and the outcome is this mongrel, which is like a human crossbred that is the hybrid of different humans. In my view, a person who makes such a claim is lying about the giraffe and lying about the creation, Animals do not impregnate females of different species: the camel does not fertilize the cow, nor the cow the she-camel, nor the horse the cow or the camel, nor vice versa, nor do other beasts or birds do that. It is true that some similar species do mate with their closely related species: the wild cow and the domesticated cow; the sheep and the goat; the horse and the donkey; the wolf and the hyena, when the mule, the mongrel sheep-goat or wolf-hyena result.

Some jurists’ discussion of what ‘zakah’ (poor due) should be levied on the hybrid from a wild and a domesticated animal is pointless in most cases. In the cases when it happens, there will be certain regulations about the resultant animals connected with zakah, the retribution for hunting, and sacrifices. In every one of these regulations precaution should prevail: in the case of sacrifices, a mongrel does not fulfill the requirement; in the case of the person in a state of ihram, and in the area of the haram (Makkah), retribution should be imposed; in the case of animal foods, prohibition should prevail; as for zakah, there is a well-known debate.

Allah has endowed animals with sharp teeth and claws to defend themselves and to attack their prey

Regard also the wisdom embodied in the craw of the bird and the functions it performs. The passage to the stomach is quite narrow, and only a little food can reach it. If the bird could not pick a grain until the previous one had reached the stomach that would take an unduly long time. When would the bird in this case finish its meal especially as it out of caution only snatches its pickings. The craw is provided so that it can use it as a pannier in which it temporarily stores the food it has picked in haste, and then it can take its time to transfer the swallowed food to the stomach. The craw has also another function, as some species of birds need to feed their chicks chewed bits, and so they find the craw handy to regurgitate the food fast.