Two main challenges are posed by the Holy Qur’an to all mankind. The first is to penetrate this universe, which is virtually impossible both from the practical and scientific points of view. In addition, the second is the challenge of the creation of even the smallest microscopic unicellular creatures. The Holy verse that expresses this challenge says:
“Those whom you invoke besides Allah could never create a single fly, though they combined to do this. And if a fly carried away anything from them, they could never retrieve it. Powerless is the invoker and the invoked” (22:73).
This Holy verse talks about the smallest visible creatures that neither man nor any of Allah’s creatures could create. In addition, The Holy Quran revealed in this verse a scientific fact that was not known at that time. It is the fact that flies take something from the humans they land on, and that they cannot retrieve it no matter how hard they try.
Moreover, the verse equates between the weakness of both the fly and man. The Quran mentioned these scientific facts, though recently discovered fourteen centuries ago. Allah has given us many other examples citing insects, such as the verse in the second Chapter that cites:
“Allah does not disdain to give a parable about a gnat or larger creature” (2:26)
and the bees:
“Your Lord revealed to the bees, (saying): Build your homes in the mountains, in the trees, and in the hives which man shall make for you, Feed on every kind of fruit, and follow the trodden path of your Lord” “From its belly comes forth a fluid of many hues, healing (drink) for men. Surely in this, there is a sign for those who would give thought” (6:68-69).
Moreover, The Quran named two Chapters by the names of insects: The Bees and the Ants. It also cited the ants saying: “an ant said: ‘0 ants go into your dwellings” (27:17).
All these examples and parables are meant to draw our attention to the perfection greatness and sophistication of Allah’s creation that the “evolutionists” and unbelievers like Darwin are not able to explain or create similar creatures “though they combined to do this”.
Ants, bees and gnats are among the most impressive and wondrous creations of Allah in their sophistication, variation and diversion in physical appearance and way of life. They are among the most enduring creations that can practically live in any environment or climate. Their number is beyond imagination, to the extent that some sources estimate them to be 1×10 18, while others say that they are at a ratio of one million insects to each man living on earth. But regardless of their total number, they are divided into many kinds whose number is more than three times the number of all other species on earth, of which only a quarter has been discovered (750,000 species).
“There is no animal on the earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but they are communities like your own» (6:38).
Yet, all these kinds have the same characteristics. God created all of their parts: The head, the thorax, which has strong muscles to support the wings and the legs; and the abdomen which has eleven segments and has the digestive and reproductive systems. In addition, all insects have other features in common: They all have three pairs of legs, and they all lay eggs to reproduce. Yet their offspring do not undergo the same process to become fully grown insects. Some of these insects (the ants and locusts for example) are born with the same features of their parents, but they have to change their outer cover many times, before they grow into their full size, while the others such as the silkworm undergo a process of metamorphosis from a maggot into a caterpillar, in which they appear to be different insects in each stage.
In the first stage, the maggots’ sole concern is to eat, and that is why Allah has ordered their mothers to lay their eggs in a place where food is nearby. He also has provided them with the means that enable them to be protected from their natural enemies. Some of these insects were provided by the ability to live inside the fruits they live on, while others that live on exposable tree leaves, were given bright colours that match the colour of their environment. Allah also gave other insects frightening shapes and colours, or distasteful tastes and even poisonous elements that cause death to the animals that eat them. Some were given only the scent and the colour of other poisonous insects so that other creatures will mistake them for poisonous ones, and refrain from eating them.
Let us go back to the larva stage, the chief and often the only nutritive stage of the insect’s life cycle, whose function is simply to transform very large quantities of plant matter into the animal matter and stay alive during that time. This stage might last for many years, or it might be a very short one. It is then followed by the pupa stage, which is similar to death or temporary death. In this stage, the larva stops feeding, hangs itself on a leaf, and then starts to form a cocoon usually of silk strings around her. It in fact buries itself in her own grave.
When the cocoon is formed, a very strange phenomenon takes place. The larva was composed of two parts: A part that was multiplying its cells, and another part that was not growing. Now at the pupa stage, the multiplying part starts to die while life begins to be pumped in the other part which begins to grow and multiply using the food that has already been stored in the storage cells.
