The Honeybee
By Dr. Ibrahim B. Syed
President
Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc
Louisville, KY
The reader of the Qur'an must have
been wondering why Surah 16, An-Nahl or the Bee,
is named after a lowly creature.
In the scientific language all the honeybees belong
to the genus Apis. The honeybee communicates with
other honeybees using a dance language, which
scientists have discovered to be very complicated
and highly developed. Karl von Frisch of the University
of Munich in Germany in the 1940s first discovered
the significance of the bee dances. Once the honeybee
discovers a source of food, it returns to the
hive and the forager bee recruits other bees through
both sound and dance and communicates information
about the location of the food. (Kirchner, W.H.
and Towne, W.F.: The Sensory Basis of the Honeybee's
Dance Language. Scientific American June 1994)
More than 2,000 years ago, Aristotle himself documented
the honeybee's ability to recruit her nest mates
and lead them on to a good food source but did
not speculate on how the communication took place.
It took over 2,000 years to understand the communication
system of the bee. Frisch and his followers were
able to recognize a pattern in the dance.
The forager walks across the vertical sheets of
comb hanging in the hive and traces out the shape
of a figure eight (8); she pauses in each loop
to shake her body from side to side. A few potential
recruits chase the dancer for some time and then
fly out on their own toward the target. In 1943
von Frisch discovered that the direction in which
the dancer faced during her waggling run pointed
toward the food site in relation to the sun; if
she waggled while facing straight upward, toward
the 12 on a clock face, then the food could be
found in the direction of the sun; if she waggled
60 degrees to the left of 12, facing the 10' 'O'
clock, then the food lay 60 degrees to the left
of the sun. In addition, he noticed the speed
at which the dancer completed her circuits corresponded
to the distance between the hive and the feeding
site; the closer the food, the more frenzied her
pace. Von Frisch and his colleagues made detailed
accounts of the dance language. They could observe
the dance, decipher its meaning and then locate
the food supply of which it spoke. This is a stunning
accomplishment for scientists.
The sounds it makes with its wings are truly an
essential part of the honeybee's dance language.
The dancer bee emits sound signals that help its
followers to find out where the dancer is located
and how she is moving, which in turn offers them
critical information regarding the direction and
distance to the feeding site. The dance attenders
receive these signals through the Johnston's organs
located in their antennae, which are always held
near the dancer. Because these organs are bilateral
- one on the left and one on the dance followers
can use them to judge their position with respect
to the dancer and therefore understand the direction
to the food.
At the same time, the followers emit sounds that
vibrate the comb. The forager stops her dance
when she receives these signals and delivers samples
of the food she has collected. These appetizers
give the followers additional information about
the taste, smell and quality of the food source.
The bees attend the dancing session for a while
and then fly out to determine the food source
on their own. If they are fortunate, they will
find the food. If they fail, they will return
to the nest and try again. (Kamaruddin, M.Y.:
Honey: a healing for mankind throughout the ages.
THE FOUNTAIN July-Sep, 1993, Vol.I, No.3, pp.
4-6.)
The exactness of the Qur'anic words in their reference
to scientific phenomena occurs in Surah 16, ayath
68, which states:
"And Thy Lord inspired the bee, saying: Choose
thou habitations in the hills and in the trees
and in (men's) habitations."
Yusuf Ali says: "Auha: wahyan ordinarily
means inspiration, the Message put into the mind
or heart by Allah. Here the Bee's instinct is
refereed to Allah's teaching, which id undoubtedly
is.
In the above verse, Allah (SWT) is commanding
the bee to choose (to make a hive) a dwelling
in the hills, trees and other places which man
has built. In Arabic, the verb assumes a specific
form when it is in the imperative form and can
be either masculine or feminine according to the
context. In the Qur'an, the Arabic command of
ittakhizee (go choose) is given to the bee in
the feminine imperative form. It is shockingly
true that only the female bee finds a new home.
The queen and the workers are the heart of the
hive: the male drones exist solely to mate with
the queen. Thus the Qur'an makes a very accurate
statement when it refers only the female bee as
the one which is being commanded from Allah (SWT)
to make a dwelling. As we know the Qur'an is a
book of Guidance and the theme of the Qur'an is
"mankind" and it is not a book of science.
However over 750 verses are found in the Qur'an
which relate to scientific phenomena as an argument
to invite the believers to the Truth. The noted
scholar Afzalur Rahman in elaborating the interconnectedness
between science and the Qur'an says:
The Qur'an clearly establishes the fact that science
and Qur'an are two aspects of the same Truth and
there is no contradiction between them... Thus
the Qur'an introduces new dimensions into the
study of religion and its philosophy and seeks
to bring men of knowledge (scientists) closer
to Allah through the study of His Attributes and
manifestations in the material world.
In another verse in Surah 16, An-Nahl, the Qur'an
says:
Then eat of all fruits (all produce of the earth),
and follow the ways of thy Lord, made smooth (for
thee). There cometh forth from their bellies a
drink of hues (varying colors), wherein is healing
for mankind. Lo! herein is indeed portent(Sign)
for people who reflect. ......... 16: 69
Allama Yusuf Ali in his commentary states: "The
bee assimilates the juice of various kinds of
flowers and fruit, and forms within its body the
honey, which it stores in its cells of wax. The
different kinds of food from which it makes its
honey give different colors to the honey, e.g.,
it is dark-brown, light-brown, yellow, white,
and so on. The taste and flavor also varies, as
in the case of heather honey, the honey formed
from scented flowers, and so on. As food it is
sweet and wholesome, and it is used in medicine.
Note that while the instinctive individual acts
are described in the singular number, the produce
of "their bodies" is described in the
plural, as the result of their collective effort.
Honey: A Healing for Mankind
As stated in 16:69, there is a natural healing
power in honey of great benefit to mankind. This
has been documented in the world's oldest medical
literature. For example the Sumerians and the
Egyptian physicians about 4000 years ago used
honey to treat internal and external wounds, ulcers,
diseases of the eyes, lungs, skin and in particular,
diseases of the stomach and intestines. The Chinese,
Indians, Greeks and Romans have recorded similar
practices. Hippocrates, the father of Western
medicine, used honey to treat a number of diseases.
Ibn Sina, the prince among Muslim physicians,
listed several beneficial uses of honey in his
monumental work "The Canon of Medicine".
Among the uses he listed are: preservation of
youthfulness, improvement of memory, a feeling
of happiness, assistance in digestion, increase
in appetite and rendering of speech.
Since 1937 it has been known that honey has antibacterial
activity due to its high sugar concentration (76g/100
ml), acidity (Ph=3.6-4.2) and the organic antibacterial
compounds present in honey. The composition of
honey is very complex containing a variety of
biochemical compounds including vitamins, amino
acids, enzymes, hormones, etc. It is used in the
treatment of wounds and ulcers. Surgeons and physicians
are using honey in the treatment of gunshot wounds,
ulcers, surface wounds, cuts and abrasions, in
the treatment of gastroenteritis (diarrhea). In
the academia a number of PhD dissertations have
been written on honey, particularly on its biochemical
properties. Endocrinologists say that glucose
levels in the blood of healthy volunteers are
increased whereas among the diabetic patients
it is decreased after consumption of honey.
Smartness of the honeybee
How smart is the common honeybee? It is far smarter
than today's most powerful supercomputers. Modern
computers can attain the amazing processing speed
of 16 gigaflops or 16 billion simple arithmetic
operations, such as adding two numbers, each second.
On the other hand the bee's brain shows that the
lowly honeybee performs the equivalent of ten
trillion operations per second. Very astounding!
In the spring of 1983, the Smithsonian Institution
conducted a symposium on animal intelligence at
which one of the researchers was Princeton ethnologist
James L. Gould, an internationally renowned expert
on honeybee behavior. In one of his experiments
he wanted to observe the ways bees locate new
food sources. To achieve this Gould provided honeybees
with desirable food sources. Once they were accustomed
to feeding at the stations, he moved the food
sources by a factor of 1.25 the distance of the
previous move. What Gould found was that after
a few such moves the honeybees no longer had to
search for the new location, but anticipated Gould's
behavior so accurately that he found the bees
circling the new location before he had even arrived
and waiting for their food. The honeybees were
able to construct quite a complex simulation of
reality in their tiny brains (less than 10 milligrams)
and deduce from past experience where Gould was
going to place the food next. (Michael Talbot,
" BEYOND THE QUANTUM " (New York, MacMillan
Publishing Company) 1990, pp. 178-179)
The bee does all of this while consuming a lot
less power than a computer. According to Byte
magazine, "a honeybee's brain dissipates
less than 10 microwatts of energy... It is superior
by about seven orders of magnitude to the most
efficient of today's manufactured computers."
What it means is that over ten million bee brains
can operate on the power needed for a single 100-watt
light bulb. The most efficient of today's computers
uses hundreds of millions of times more energy
to perform an equivalent number of operations.
As shown above they are able to navigate across
long distances to locate sources of nectar and
then return to the hive and communicate directions
to fellow bees. They prepare special food items
such as royal jelly and beebread, for their young.
They protect their home by recognizing and repelling
intruders. They regularly remove garbage and other
refuse from their hive. They control the climate
in the hive by fanning the fresh air and sprinkling
water during summer and by clustering together
for warmth in the winter. When their hives become
overcrowded, they are smart enough to know that
some have to leave and establish new colonies
and live independently. Yet, supercomputers require
teams of programmers, engineers, and technicians.
(Bee versus Computer, AWAKE February 8, 1995,
pp.24-25)
Bees truly are a marvel of Allah (SWT)'s creation.
Is there any doubt why Surah 16, the Qur'an is
called NAHL.
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