Basically, the gist of the missionary claim is :
-
Why does the Qur’an say that ants talk (27:18 – 19)? Everyone knows that ants communicate by chemicals detected by scent and never sound ! Is this not a scientific error in the Qur’an ?
Response
This style of argument is quite sophomoric in that it is entirely based on someone who does not even have a rudimentary level understanding of zoology or entomology (I believe this is covered in 9th-Grade Biology in the USA). Its sadly typical of this genre of anti-Islamic quasi-polemicists. You seriously couldn’t go to the library or even do a web search for information on acoustic communication by ants ? What does this say about your credibility as a genre collectively ?
The critic fallaciously relied upon an English translation of the Qur’an which no Muslim relies upon. Unlike the Christians’ New Testament which has no Syriac or Aramaic original, nor even a Greek codex from the 1st century CE, the Qur’an has always been in Arabic as it is today and this is the standard throughout the world. Critics and supporters alike agree that the Qur’an was always Arabic (ignoring any neophytes who baselessly claim it was Syriac). Even orientalists with half a brain quote from the Arabic text.
Firstly, have you ever heard of something called a “miracle” associated with someone called a “prophet”? If Moses can part the Red Sea, Solomon hearing the communication of ants is nothing.
So the question is : Do ants communicate acoustically ?
Here is the verse :
“(18) Ḥattā idhā ataw ʿalā wādī an-naml, qālat namlatun : Yā ayyuhā an-namlu, udkhulū masākinakum lā yaḥtumannakum Sulaymānu wa junūduhu wa hum lā yashʿurūn.
(19) Fa-tabaṣṣama ḍāḥikan min qawlihā wa qāla : Rabbi awziʿnī an ashkura niʿmataka allatī anʿamta ʿalayya wa ʿalā wālidayya wa an aʿmala ṣāliḥan tarḍāhu wa-adkhilnī biraḥmatika fī ʿibādika aṣ-ṣāliḥīn.”
This is the translation :
(18) Until when they reached a valley of naml — one of the namlat(un) conveyed : O you company of naml, into your dwellings lest Solomon and his armies crush you unbeknownst to them.
(19) So he smiled, amused by her message, and said : O my Lord ! Order me that I may be grateful for Your favours which you have bestowed on me and on my parents, and that I may work righteousness that will please You. And admit me, by Your Grace, to the ranks of Your righteous servants.”
First of all we have the word “naml” in Arabic which is a word for ants as well as termites in the Arabic language. Ants are usually called in Arabic “an-Naml al-Abyad” meaning “the white ant”.
The antagonist(s) typically make the fallacious assumption that ants do not communicate by sound. Not only do ants communicate by sound, but termites are specifically known to communicate by sound. Regarding ants, their acoustic communication has been thoroughly researched and documented in a study from Robert Hickling, National Center for Physical Acoustics University of Mississippi and Richard L. Brown, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Mississippi State University entitled “Nearfield acoustic communication by ants”.
Not only did they document ant sounds — and here’s the devastating blow to this missionary nonsense — they recorded the sounds you can hear on the web.
Here are the actual .wav files you can listen to :
Stridulation Sounds of Black Fire Ants (Solenopsis richteri) in Different Situations
- Alarm signal generated by black fire ants when a microphone probe is inserted into their mound
- Normal movement sounds of a group of ants with occasional bursts of stridulation sound from a single ant
- Sounds of ants attacking a caterpillar with stridulation sound from a single ant
- Distress signals emitted by a single major worker with a caught antenna
Now that absolutely ends the argument right there. But to take it even a step further, scholars of Qur’?c hermeneutics have stated that due to the verses preceding 18 – 19 it can be strongly adduced that these are winged ants or possible winged termites.
In verse 27:16 which is 2 verses before the topic of this discussion, Solomon states : “ ‘ullimnā manṭiq aṭ-ṭayr.” meaning, “we have been taught the mode of communication for those things which fly (birds, etc)”. The word “tayr” literally means to fly as the words for “bird” and “airplane” also derive from the same root of “tayr” in the Arabic language. This is the opinion of Ash-Shu’bi as related in Al-Qurtubi’s tafsir, Volume 13, who states : “These ‘namlah’ had two wings, thus they were categorized as tayr…”
I use the word “naml” instead of “ant” and “things that fly” instead of “bird”, since the English translations have failed to capture these linguistic nuances which must be explained. It is well known that termites communicate by sound and this does not require any posting of a research paper. Even the Orkin pest control guy knows that they do.
What is interesting to note is that wings in ants is a sign of unmated males and females, as they are called “winged reproductives” or “swarmers”. This is because they leave their mounds en masse to mate. Hence, the verse mentioning that these ants are not in their mounds but out in the open. This verse uses the feminine verb “qālat” in regards to the ant that warned the others. Thus, it was perhaps a winged, unmated queen.
Now do critics of a Judeo-Christian background have anything to stand upon when they make this criticism ?
No. The words used in verses 18 – 19 for communication are inflections of the word ‘qāla’ (قَالَ). This word does not only mean to speak, but also to convey something or to make a sound. The cognate for this word in previous scriptures is ‘qāl’ (ܩܐܠ) in Aramaic and is found in the Book of Daniel in the following manner :
“ḥāzeh hāwah min-qōl millîn rabbāyin dī-’imallēl qarnā.”
“I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake…” (Daniel 7:11)
A talking horn ? The notion of an inanimate horn talking is even more absurd than an ant talking ! You will often find that the Christian missionaries like to cast stones from glass houses. The fact is that these are miracles and you aren’t supposed to try and “scientifically explain” them anyways. However, even when we answer the missionaries’ challenges by doing so, they end up falling flat on their faces.
So in conclusion, how does the Qur’an document such detail which would have literally been unknowable in the 7th century C.E.? According to those who say the Prophet Muhammad (P) invented the Qur’an one would have to conclude that he was a Biblical Scholar, a Semitic Etymologist with prowess in Hebrew, Syriac and Greek on a scholarly level, an OB-Gyn, a Chemist, a Meterologist, a Geologist, a Zoologist, a Chemist, etc., and now an Entomologist ! Maybe he had a time machine, eh ? Dismissing the Qur’an as the Prophet’s (P) invention creates more problems than it addresses.
And only God knows best.
7 Comments
Okay, great, great arguments. So lets just agree that it is a miracle okay, something that cannot be explain logically. Lets just say that solomon “understood” what the ants said.
Still that doesnt make ants can “talk”.
Ants do not have a complex brain that allows it to be able to communicate using “language”. Language and communication is different. Animals cant communicate in many ways. But they cannot communicate using language. Animals communicate only just to tell “food”, “enemy”, or other simple stuffs. So even if its translated, no way ants can talk like in the quran.
I supposed you already know that one of the requirement for something to be called language is grammar.
In your quran, ants is talking with a complex brain and complex grammar. If that is really real, ants could have literally taken over the world by now, since their brain is so complex they can recognize their enemy, they can create plan, and others human can do.
So, let’s say the miracle of solomon is not “translating” ants communication, but rather to make the ants to be able to have complex mind like human that they are able to invent language, well that would be even more stupid. Arab now would have been full of descendants of smart ants lol. But yet, those things are not just silly, but also have no evidence whatsoever. Stupid islam
I feel retarded when I read anything related to Islam. But I had to. When I feel stupid and useless I just read Islamic texts to feel better again. Because they make me realise there are way dumber people than me in this world it’s so satisfying
Adam … Any one can write like you did.…… few lines filled with vagaries and with no underlying facts .…. AND that my dear friend how deceit is defined by you infidels among us , the true followers of Jesus .…
LOL, you muslims are not only trying to deceive others but yourselves n your families. Defending a fake , error ridden book full of stupidities serve no justice to mankind. Stay away from islam
You are going to have to do better than disparaging Islam if you want to convince us of your lies.
transposing “acoustic communication by ants” (between each other) and “stridulation sounds” into vocalization in a human language is quranic wordplay at its most inventive. But at least you admit that it is not to be taken literally and that an ant talking in a human language with any human would be yet one more “miracle” on the scale of credibility with the parting of the seas in yet another deeply flawed and morally corrupt “holy book.” So, here we have one more “scientific” claim for the quran that turns out to be a word game. Ants do not talk with people. People do not talk with ants.
As for any claim that the quran has pre-modern knowledge of ant communication with each other, it has been known even in primitive cultures that predate the quran by thousands of years that ants (and a high percentage of insects and other creatures) produce rubbing of body parts that makes a sound understood by others of their species in a highly limited “vocabulary” (none of it vocal). Even other creatures “know” that stridulent sounds they hear may be fast food if they follow the sound to its source.
Salam please tell me how did the ant knows solomon personally.