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The Honeybee
Dr. Ibrahim B. Syed
Clinical
Professor of Medicine
University of Louisville School of Medicine
Louisville, KY 40292
and
President, Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc
7102 W. Shefford Lane
Louisville, KY 40242-6462
E-Mail: IRFI@INAME.COM
Website:
http://WWW.IRFI.ORG
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
honeybee using a dance language, which the 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 bees' 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 dances and communicates
information about the location of food.
More than 2,000 years ago, Aristotle
himself documented the honeybee's ability to recruit her nestmates 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 after the dancer attentively 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 clockface, 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 that how fast 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 the dance 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 dance followers additional information
about the taste, smell and quality of the food source. The bees attend the
dancing 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.
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 Sumerans 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 of
medicine "The Canon of Medicine". Among the uses he listed are:
preservation of youthfulness, improvement of memory, a feeling of happiness,
assists in digestion, increase in appetite and helps promote in one's rendering
of speech.
Since 1937 it has been known that honey has
antibacterial activity due to its high sugar concentration (76 g/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 suing honey
in the treatment of gunshot wounds, ulcers, surface wounds, cuts and abrasions,
in the treatment of gastroenteritis (diarrhoea). In the academia a number of
Ph.D. dissertations have been written on honey, particularly on its biochemical
properties. Endocrinologists say that glucose levels in 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 otherhand 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 ethologist James L. Gould, an internationally renowned
expert on honeybee behavior. In one of his experiments he wanted to observe the
ways bee 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.
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. Bees truly are a marvel of
Allah (SWT)'s creation. Is there any doubt why Surah 16, the Qur'an is called
NAHL.
This article is based on Jumuah Khutbahs
(Friday Sermons) the author delivered at the Islamic Center of Madison,
Wisconsin, Al-Fajr Mosque, Indianapolis and Islamic Center of Louisville,
Louisville, Kentucky. The author is considered to be the world's foremost
exponent for the interpretation of Al-Qur'an in the light of modern knowledge.
The author encourages feed back from the readers.
FURTHER READING
1. Kirchner, W.H. and Towne, W.F.: The
Sensory Basis of the Honeybee's Dance Language. Scientific American June
1994
2. Kamaruddin, M.Y.: Honey: a healing for
mankind throughout the ages. THE FOUNTAIN July-Sep, 1993, Vol.1, No.3,
pp. 4-6.
3. Bee versus Computer, AWAKE
February 8, 1995, pp.24-25.
4. Michael
Talbot, " BEYOND THE QUANTUM " (New York, Macmillian Publishing Company)
1990, pp. 178-179
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