An ant warned her whole valley
حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَآ أَتَوْا۟ عَلَىٰ وَادِ ٱلنَّمْلِ قَالَتْ نَمْلَةٌ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّمْلُ ٱدْخُلُوا۟ مَسَٰكِنَكُمْ لَا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَٰنُ وَجُنُودُهُۥ وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ ﴿١٨﴾
Surah An-Naml · 27:18
Meaning (M. Pickthall, 1930): Till, when they reached the Valley of the Ants, an ant exclaimed: O ants! Enter your dwellings lest Solomon and his armies crush you, unperceiving.
The reflection
An ant once warned her whole valley. What did she say?
In the chapter of the Ant, as Solomon and his armies reached the Valley of the Ants, an ant exclaimed: "O ants! Enter your dwellings".
Al-Sa'di writes: this ant gave sincere advice to her kind. Either God gave the ants a hearing beyond the ordinary, so one ant's voice reached the whole valley, a wonder of wonders, or she told those around her and the news spread to them all.
Then she excused the army: "unperceiving". If they crush you, it is not on purpose. A tiny ant, sincere and fair. And God knows best.
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Sources
- al-Sa'di, Taysir al-Karim al-Rahman
- Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-'Azim
- Quran text: Tanzil Project (tanzil.net)
- English meaning: M. Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930)
