Assalaamualaikum wr wb,
Today something weird happened. A stowaway came with Kitty to our house. (I find this rather… unnerving because I never expected such a thing to happen although it was bound to occur since she goes outside so much.) It was some sort of ant. I was going to kill it. But I decided to be merciful towards it after remembering the story of how Suleiman or Solomon (as) was walking to the Valley of the Ants with his companions. One ant saw them coming and he said to the other ants to retreat or else they will be stepped on and thus killed. However, Suleiman (as) heard this (because he knew the language of all the animals which is SOOO AWESOME!!! :D) and they weren’t killed. Imagine that! Subhanallah! I find that so awesome that these small creatures which most people think aren’t much like us humans are indeed like us. For example, I found this on islamawareness.net:
Life Style of Ants
In recent times, research has shown us several facts about the lifestyle of ants, which were not known earlier to mankind. Research has shown that the animals or insects whose lifestyle is closest in resemblance of the lifestyle of human beings are the ants. This can be seen from the following findings regarding ants:
- The ants bury their dead in a manner similar to the humans.
- They have a sophisticated system of division of labour.
- Once in a while they meet among themselves to have a ‘chat’.
- They have an advanced method of communication among themselves.
- They hold regular markets wherein they exchange goods.
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They store grains for long periods in winter and if the grain begins to bud, they cut the roots, If the grains stored by them get wet due to rains, they take these grains out into the sunlight to dry, and once these are dry, they take them back inside. Consider the following Qur’anic verses:
At length, when they came to a (lowly) valley of ants, one of the ants said: ‘Oye ants, get into your habitations, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you (Under foot) without knowing it.” (Al-Qur’an 27:17-18)
Isn’t that so cool? They’re so much like us. I also read this which has further information on this topic: http://www.islamcan.com/signsofallah/signs-of-allah-in-ants.shtml#.U1WjK_ldXl8. Anyways so back to my story. I carried the ant and put it back in the outdoors and I saw it putting its “hands” up in the air and I was like omg maybe it’s praying.
So what I’m trying to say is although these animals are quite small, they are indeed such awesome creatures of Allah (swt). They’re so sophisticated and orderly. Please don’t crush them. 🙂
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