Third Point
An amusing and absorbing conversation with Süleyman Rüştü, famous for his fidelity and distinguished by his sincerity of heart
A Small Point Concerning an Important Verse
It was autumn and approaching the time flies are discharged from their duties, and because of their minor annoyance, selfish humans were employing chemicals in my prison cell in order to eliminate them. It aroused a sharp pity in me. There was a washing‑line in my cell. In order to thwart the humans the flies multiplied even more. In the evening those miniature birds would line themselves up in most orderly fashion on the line. When he wanted to hang up the washing, I said to Rüştü: “Don’t disturb those little birds; hang it somewhere else.” To which he replied, completely seriously: “We need the line; let the flies find somewhere else for themselves.”
Anyhow… In the early morning a discussion started up in connection with this exchange, about the very numerous small creatures like flies and ants. I said the following to him:
The species whose copies are thus numerous have important duties and great value, like the copies of a book are multiplied in relation to the book’s importance. That is to say, the species of flies have important duties and high value so that the All‑Wise Creator has greatly multiplied those tiny missives of divine determining and copies of the words of divine power. The All-Wise Qur’an states: O men! Here is a parable set forth; listen to it! Those on whom you call besides Allah cannot create [even] a fly, if they all met together for the purpose! And if the fly should snatch away anything from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly. Feeble are those who petition and those whom they petition!
That is to say, if those things claimed to be gods by the people of misguidance were to gather together all causes and false gods apart from Allah the Most High, they would be unable to create even a fly. That is, the creation of a fly is such a dominical miracle and clear sign of the creative act that even if all causes were to assemble they would be unable to make anything like it or to duplicate it, and would be unable to dispute that dominical sign. Flies, the significant subject of the above verse, defeated Nimrod, and when Moses (Upon whom be peace) complained about their bothering him, saying: “O my Sustainer! Why have You made these irritating creatures so very numerous?”, the following answer came to him by way of inspiration: “You have objected about the flies once while the flies have asked many times: ‘O our Sustainer! This man has a huge head, yet he praises You with only one tongue, and sometimes he neglects to do that. If you had created us out of only his head, there would have been creatures like us praising You with thousands of tongues!’” Moreover the flies, which thus defended the wisdom in their creation against Moses’ complaint sufficiently powerfully to withstand a thousand such objections, also pursue great cleanliness. These insects continually wash their faces, eyes, and wings as though taking ablutions, and have important duties. The common view is short‑sighted; it is still unable to comprehend those duties.
Indeed, Allah the Most High has created an orderly group of carniverous beings as public health officials of a sort; they cleanse the seas by gathering up the corpses of other sea‑creatures that die every day in their millions, and prevent the sea from becoming polluted and disgusting with their corpses. If those public health officals of the sea did not carry out their extremely regular duties, the sea would not sparkle like a mirror; it would rather display a sad and touching turbidity.
Also, Allah the Most High has created carniverous and carrion‑eating birds, and wild animals to be like cleansing and public health officials which collect the corpses of the wild animals and birds that die every day in their millions, cleanse the face of the earth of those putrid remains, and save other animate beings from such sad, discomforting sights. Some, like eagles for example, through a divine impulse, wonderfully perceive the location of a corpse from a distance of five or six hours, though hidden and distant, and hasten to remove it. If those health officals of the land were not extremely efficient and orderly in carrying out their official duties, the face of the earth would become such so as to make all weep.
The licit food of carniverous animals is the flesh of dead animals. The flesh of living animals is unlawful for them. If they eat it, they receive punishment. The Hadith which states: On Resurrection Day, retribution shall be exacted for the hornless sheep on the horned, points out that although the bodies of animals with immortal spirits perish, they will receive reward and punishment in a manner appropriate for them in an eternal realm. In consequence, it may be said that the flesh of live animals is unlawful for wild animals.
Furthermore, ants are employed as cleansing officials to collect the corpses of tiny creatures and small particles and fragments of bounty. They are given duties as public health officals to preserve tiny particles of divine bounty from waste, from being trodden underfoot, contempt and futility, and to gather up the corpses of other small creatures.
Similarly, flies are charged with duties of cleaning away poisonous substances and microbes which breed disease and are invisible to the human eye. They do not transmit microbes, on the contrary, through sucking up and imbibing harmful microbes they destroy them and cause them to be transformed into a different state; they prevent the spread of many contagious diseases. A sign that they are both health workers and cleansing officials and chemists and that they exhibit extensive wisdom is the fact that they are extremely numerous. For valuable and beneficial things are multiplied.
O you self‑centred human being! Apart from the thousands of instances of wisdom in the creation of flies, consider the following small benefit that concerns you and leave off your hostility towards them. For just as they offer you some familiarity in your exile, solitude and loneliness, so do they warn you against sliding into heedlessness and your thought wandering. You see flies that through their delicate manner and their washing their faces and eyes as though taking ablutions are giving you a lesson and reminding you of human duties like action and cleanliness.
Moreover, bees, which may be thought of as a sort of fly, give you honey to eat, the sweetest and most delicate of bounties. And as is stated by the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, they are distinguished by receiving divine inspiration. So to be hostile towards them although they should be loved; indeed, to be hostile towards creatures that suffer all sorts of difficulties in hastening in friendship to assist man, is wrongful and unjust. We may combat harmful creatures only to repel their harm. We fight wolves to protect sheep from their attack, for example. Mosquitoes and fleas fall upon the turbid blood flowing in the veins polluted by harmful substances; indeed, they are charged with consuming the polluted blood. So why should they not be natural cuppers in hot weather when there is blood surplus to the body’s needs? It is possible…
Glory be to Him Whose art bewilders the mind!
At one time when I was struggling with my evil‑commanding soul, it was imagining that the bounties it saw in itself to be its own property, and it became conceited, proud and boastful. I told it: “This property is not yours; it is on trust.” So it gave up its conceit and pride but became lazy, it said: “Why should I bother about someone who is not mine? Let him perish, what is it to me?” Suddenly I saw that a fly had alighted on my hand and had started to thoroughly clean its eyes, face, and wings, which were its trust from Allah the Most High. The fly was washing itself just like a soldier cleans his rifle and uniform thoroughly, which belong to the state. I said to my soul: “You look at that!” It looked and learned a good lesson. As for the fly, it became my conceited and lazy soul’s teacher and instructor.
Fly excretion is not harmful medically; in fact, sometimes it is a sweet syrup. For it is not distant from dominical wisdom, it is indeed a function of that wisdom, that while flies contain thousands of harmful substances, microbes, and poisons from what they have eaten, they are like tiny transformation and purification machines. Apart from bees, there are other species of flying insects that eat various putrid substances and then continuously excrete droplets of syrup in place of the filth. By transforming those rotten, poisonous substances into a sweet and healing syrup, a confection of divine power, that rains onto the leaves of trees, they prove that they are machines for transmuting one substance into another. They demonstrate before one’s eyes what a mighty nation and group these tiny individuals form. Through the tongues of their beings, they say: “Don’t look at our smallness, consider the vastness of our species, and declare, ‘All Glory be to Allah!’”