Part 30

Birds’ feathers’ and the diversity of their colours

Reflect then on the widely different colours, hues and shades of many species of birds, like the peacock, the pheasant and others, which would beat the beauty and precision of any human art, no matter how carefully and finely painted. How can nature produce such exquisite art which no human art can match?

Observe the peacock’s colour and its intricacy! You can see that it matches the weaving of very delicate fabric, woven from very thin threads, and spun together, in the way a thread is intertwined with thread, or hairs with hairs. Try to pull apart the fibres of a feather, and you find that they spread bit by bit, hardly admitting even the passage of air. They are designed to carry the bird in its

' ‘The Almighty in His Power created the duck with feathers that do not get wet. This is made possible by the fat glands surrounding the roots of feathers, which lubricate the duck’s feathers. You often notice the duck on the bank tidying its feathers with its beak, when it is in fact reaching with its beak for some of the fat glands near the tail to use the fat for rubbing parts of the feathers on its body.

flight, and you see in the middle of the fibres a strong stout column, overlaid with that mantle that resembles hair to give it firmness with lightness: this is the mid-rib in the middle of a feather; it is hollow, filled with air to allow the bird to float in the air. What nature could have that wisdom, knowledge and kindness? Even if it were nature that accomplished these wonders, as they say, that would be a compelling proof and convincing witness of the Power, Knowledge and Wisdom of its Maker and Originator. The proof the denier uses to deny the Lord is in fact a strong proof and sign that increases the believer in faith. The truth is that by the same signs of Allah, He misleads whomsoever He wants and guides whomsoever He wants.

Some birds’ long legs

Observe this bird with long legs,’ and try to discover the benefit of the length of its legs. It seeks food in shallow water, and it stands on its legs like a forecastle upon a boat, peering on the creatures that move in the water; when it sees something that suits its need, it moves softly until it catches it. If it were short-legged and moved in the water towards the prey, its belly would touch the water and disturb it, which would scare the prey and drive it away. The two columns it was provided with help it achieve its purpose, and not ruin its attempt. In every bird balance is maintained between the length of legs and the length of neck to help it pick up its food from the ground. It may be helped in addition to its long neck with the length of its beak which makes it even easier and more handy to obtain its quest.

*The stork with its long legs flies in the winter for about 6 thousand

kilometres from Germany, Holland and Austria to the middle and south of Africa seeking locusts, its food of choice. (So who guided it to travel those vast distances to do that?)

Look at birds seeking their food throughout the day; they neither fail to find it, nor find it gathered and ready. They rather find it by searching and seeking in different directions and places. So, glory be to Him who created the food and put it within reach! See how He did not make food too hard for birds to obtain, while He willed at the same time that they need to strive to get it. See how He made it fairly available to them at all times and everywhere; they find it even in walls, in ceilings and on roofs. They pick it at leisure, not challenged in their pursuit by other species of birds. If all the food they needed were gathered in one place, all ready to be picked, they would all converge on it voraciously and greedily, not giving up even after they had their fill, until they were satiated and killed themselves with overeating.’ This is so with humans too. If their food were made obtainable without the least effort or toil, that would be conducive to avarice and greed; mischief would spread, vice and extravagant behaviour would abound. So glory be to the Gentle, the Knower, Who did not create anything in vain or without good reason!

The multiplicity of insects

Observe those nocturnal flying creatures, the owl, the bat and similar other animals. Their food is found in the air; it is not grain or meat, but mosquitoes, moths and such flying creatures. They snatch of those what they need and then seek shelter at their habitation, not coming out except by night; because those mosquitoes, moths and the like are spread everywhere, and there is hardly a place

Migrating birds travel seeking food over continents and go on flying for weeks; man just wonders where and how they sleep. To unravel the mystery, some scientists fixed tiny devices on some of these birds. They found that the birds take turns in sleeping, while staying with the flock that goes on in its journey that takes ten days.

devoid of them. To confirm this, put a lantern by night on a roof or a yard, and you see swarms of such insects flocking to it. Creatures likes bugs and moths are low of wit, not much capable of fending for themselves, the least gifted in this respect of all flying creatures and the most foolish — you have a manifest evidence of this in their flinging themselves in the fire even if you try to scare them away until they get burned to death. So the Lord made these creatures food for those birds, which come out by night in search of those insects, and feed themselves on them. During the day, they confine themselves to their habitation. For them, night is like the day for other birds, and their day is like the others’ night. Even so, He Who undertook to give all creatures their living sends them what they need in the air, not neglecting to feed them despite their weakness and unresourcefulness. This reveals one benefit and function in creating moths, grasshoppers * and mosquitoes. Many groups of species that glorify the Lord find their living in those creatures! Otherwise they would have multiplied and proliferated until they would have caused mischief to humans and deprived them of their peace. Regard then the remarkable craftsmanship and management of Allah; they oblige the minds to testify to His Lordship, Power, Knowledge and Wisdom; what is revealed to men’s eyes is not the result of coincidence or blind chance, as is confirmed by every kind of proof that no innate nature can deny at all.

“A grasshopper is a species of insects that skips in the fields. It can change its

colour, adopting the colour of the exact spot where it happens to be.

* Another species of insects, the female hornet, anticipated man in manufacturing paper. It gathers wood fibers and some plant constituents with its strong jaws, then it brings them out and mixes them with a liquid that it secretes, then it leaves them to dry. Once they have dried, they become a thin layer, similar to the brownish paper that shopkeepers use for wrapping. From that paper the female hornet builds its habitation. We do not know whether the Japanese who build their houses from paper adopted this idea from that species or not!

Having mentioned the bat, we should note that it isa unique and remarkable species that the Lord created, having common features with birds, and common features with quadrupeds, though it has more in common with the latter; it has two sticking-out ears, teeth and an anus. It delivers babies, breast feeds, walks on four legs, having all the characteristics of the quadrupeds. On the other hand, it flies with wings like birds. Since its vision is too week to encounter sunshine, its day is like other creatures’ night. After sunset it sets out. Hence a weak-sighted person is compared in Arabic to a bat, and the word ‘khafash’ in Arabic means weakness of vision. Having to seek its living by night, it is similar in this to weak birds which do not fly except by night. Some of those who describe the lives of animals have claimed that the bat eats nothing, and that its only source of nutrition is cool breeze. This is a falsehood about this species and about nature, since this animal urinates. In fact, jurists have discussed whether its urine is lawfully clean or not. The point of the discussion is: is it the urine of a non-edible animal, and therefore unclean, or is it unclean but little droplets of it are pardonable in view of the difficulty of avoiding them? Both verdicts have legitimacy, and both have been attributed to Imam Ahmad. There is a third view, that no quantity of it, small or big, is unclean, and this is the most correct view, since there is no text (from the Prophet) concerning it, so it may not be likened to unclean urines, in the absence of a strong common quality and in view of the evident difference. This is, however, not the place to pursue the arguments of the different parties. What concerns us here is that if the bat ate nothing, there would be no point in its having teeth, since teeth are of no use for a creature that eats nothing. The infant, for instance, is not provided with teeth as long as_ it does not eat. When it

grows and needs to eat, it is equipped to do that with incisors that cut food and grinders that grind it. There is nothing in creation that is done haphazardly, or is devoid of wisdom, or without reason. As for the benefits and uses of the bat, physicians have enumerated such of these that they were able to detect. Even its urine is used as an ingredient in certain eye powders. And so, if the urine, that is furthest from being of use, is useful, one may use his imagination to think of the rest of its benefits and uses.

A person whose truthfulness is well known to me tells me that he saw that an Egyptian vulture, which isa wellknown bird, had built its nest in a tree. Once it saw a huge snake approaching toward its nest gaping with the intent of swallowing its eggs. It looked frantically for a way to save its nest, and saw a bone in the nest; so it carried it and shoved it in the snake’s mouth. The latter started to twist in pain until it perished.