Nature Explorer

A warning to the Sabbath-breakers of the town by the sea — 'Be apes, despised' — and among those whom God transformed were apes and swine.

The bear in al-Damiri: a predator of the mountains; most scholars hold its flesh is not eaten as it is a fanged beast of prey, and the reports tell it is among the craftiest and fiercest of beasts when angered.

A beast smaller than a mule and larger than a donkey which the Prophet rode on the Night Journey from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, placing its hoof where its sight reached.

'Do they not look at the camels, how they are created?' For the desert Arabs the camel was livelihood and mercy: a mount, a gift, a bride-price; in it, as in all creatures, is a lesson for those who ponder the heavens and the earth.

The Prophet said of the cat: it is not unclean, it is one of those that go about among you; and a woman was punished for a cat she shut up — she neither fed it nor let it eat of the vermin of the earth.

Malik named it with the lion, the leopard and the wolf among the beasts that attack people, whose killing is lawful in the sanctuary — the charging predator is no ransom on the pilgrim.

The cow Moses' people questioned until its description grew narrow upon them: neither old nor young but middling, bright yellow, pleasing to beholders; they slaughtered it though they nearly did not, struck the dead man with part of it and he named his killer.

In the hadith the dog belongs to hunting, the herd and the field; the Prophet forbade its price, and whoever keeps a dog — except a hunting, herding or farm dog — loses two qirats of reward each day; the rabid dog may be killed even in ihram.

The dog that accompanied the youths of the cave and is named with them in the Quran: forelegs stretched at the threshold, a guard. They slept three hundred years and nine, then God raised them to question one another.

The harshest of voices is the braying of donkeys; one laden with the Torah who carries it not is like a donkey carrying scrolls; horses, mules and donkeys are for riding. And the donkey of Uzair, whose owner saw its bones raised and clothed with flesh after God gave it death a hundred years.

Abraha's elephant at the head of the army marching from Yemen to destroy the Kaaba; it halted when turned toward the House and the army's fate was what Surah al-Fil recounts. That year was named the Year of the Elephant, the year of the Prophet Muhammad's birth.

Two litigants climbed into David's sanctuary: one had ninety-nine ewes, the other one ewe which the first sought to add to his own. David judged the first unjust, then knew he had been tried and asked his Lord's forgiveness.

Malik counted it among the beasts that do not attack people, with the hyena and the cat — the pilgrim does not kill it, and if he does he pays ransom: the thicket-hunter has the sanctuary's peace so long as it does not attack.

Umar ruled a goat in compensation for the gazelle killed in ihram — the first game of Arabia, witness that every hunted beast has its ransom in wealth.

'Whoever kills a gecko at the first stroke has such-and-such a reward' — seventy good deeds in one report — the fuwaysiqa whose killing was ordered, the reward graded by the swiftness of the stroke.

The Samiri made for Moses' people a calf's body that lowed, from their ornaments, and they said 'this is your god and the god of Moses, but he forgot'; it was their ruin when Moses returned angry and grieved.

Umar ruled a young she-kid in compensation for the hare killed in ihram — the smallest of the wild has a ransom with the scholars, and the hare is lawful game to eat for most of them.

Horses, mules and donkeys to ride and as adornment; fine-marked horses are among the goods of this world, and Solomon's standing steeds were shown to him one evening until they passed behind the veil.

Umar ruled a ram in compensation for the hyena killed in ihram, and Malik counted her among the beasts that do not attack — the pilgrim does not kill her, and if he does he ransoms it: between levy and ransom lies the hyena's share in the hunting books.

Umar ruled a jafra (weaned lamb) in compensation for the jerboa killed in ihram — the smallest game in the book of rulings, the desert's bounding rat with its place in the law of the sanctuary.

Malik counted it among what attacks people and strikes fear — like the lion, the cheetah and the wolf — so it carries the ruling of the rabid dog: the pilgrim may kill it without sin.

The wild asses fled from a qaswara — most commentators read it as the lion, others as the huntsmen; the Quran leaves the image open: wild beasts fleeing a terror or a hunter.

Camels, cattle, sheep and goats: in them warmth, uses and drink, and from their wool and hair furnishings and goods for a time — eight mates He created for you; the surah of the Cattle is named for them.

A grilled lizard was brought to the Prophet and he did not eat it: 'It is not unlawful, but it was never found in the land of my people' — while Khalid ibn al-Walid ate it under his eyes; the table hadith in Maymunah's house is among the most famous animal reports in the Sunna.

One of the five vermin the pilgrim may kill without sin; the fuwaysiqa that can set the house ablaze, so the lamp is put out; and if it falls into the ghee it is lifted out with what is around it.

'That you may ride them and as adornment': God created for you livestock, horses, mules and donkeys; Malik held that horses, mules and donkeys are not eaten; and al-Buraq is a beast smaller than a mule and larger than a donkey.

God ransomed Ishmael with a great sacrifice when his father submitted to the command and the son said: 'O my father, do as you are commanded; you will find me, God willing, of the patient.'

The samandal of the ancients: a creature that falls into fire unburned and quenches what it lands in; al-Damiri lists it among the marvels of beasts while most of the transmitters weaken the tale — a line from the mythology of nature, not the hadith canon.

Moses' staff, when cast, writhed as though it were a serpent and swallowed what the magicians faked — a living snake running upon their ropes and staffs. God said to Moses: cast what is in your right hand.

A sign sent to Thamud: God's she-camel, with her appointed day of water and theirs; their most wretched hamstrung her and the promised punishment seized them after three days. Salih said: this is God's she-camel, a sign for you.

Sheep grazed by the shepherd in the mountain passes and the places of rain are the Muslim's best wealth when trials come; a shepherd girl told the Prophet a wolf had eaten a ewe of her flock and that raised her standing.

God forbade the flesh of swine in four places, for it is filth; among those whom He transformed were apes and swine.

Joseph's wolf, of which his father Jacob warned lest it eat him while they were heedless; the brothers claimed the wolf ate him and would not have been believed even had they spoken true. In hadith a shepherd girl told the Prophet a wolf had eaten a ewe of her flock.

God sent against the People of the Elephant flights of birds pelting them with stones of baked clay, leaving them like straw eaten up, when they marched to destroy the Kaaba in the Year of the Elephant.

The bat in al-Damiri: the night-flyer with no feathers, that bears live young and does not lay eggs — some call it the watwat — placed by the animal writers among what falls between bird and beast.

Birds in the Quran are Solomon's host and a sign overhead — nothing holds them up but the Merciful — communities like yours glorifying God. Jesus shaped a bird from clay and breathed into it by God's leave, and Abraham scattered four birds over the hills then called them and they came flying.

The bustard: to the Arabs the noblest game of the land, hunted by trained falcons — the kings of Persia kept falconers for it; al-Damiri places it among the big birds that lay few eggs and carry much meat.

God sent a crow scratching the ground to show one of Adam's sons, who had killed his brother, how to hide his brother's nakedness; he cried 'Am I too weak to be like this crow?' The crow is among the vermin the Prophet permitted killing.

Jabir saw the Seal of Prophethood between the Prophet's shoulders 'like a dove's egg' — the house bird whose egg was made the likeness of the greatest sign.

Malik counted it among the trained birds whose catch is lawful when God's name is uttered at release — the king of the air in the Arabic sources and the noblest of the raptors.

A trained hunting bird: the scholars permitted what a trained falcon catches when God's name is uttered at its release, its casting counted as the shot of an arrow and its clutching as the slaughter.

Malik named it with the goshawk and the eagle among trained birds: what it catches trained is lawful, but if the game escapes its talons and then dies while one could still have slaughtered it, it is not.

The heron — 'the melancholy king' — in al-Damiri: a water bird standing on one leg like one in retreat; the Arabs proverb its patience — 'more patient than a heron' — and made it their image of vigil and waiting.

Solomon's bird which he missed one day; it returned from Sheba with certain news of a kingdom prostrating to the sun instead of God, and he sent it with his letter to their queen — 'rise not against me, but come to me in submission' — and she submitted with Solomon to the Lord of the worlds. The Prophet forbade killing it.

One of the five vermin the Prophet permitted to be killed in and out of ihram, with the crow, the scorpion, the mouse and the rabid dog — any other bird killed in ihram is ransomed.

The sunna remembers the ostrich's egg in rulings: Malik valued it at a tenth of the price of a sacrificial camel for what an ihram pilgrim destroys, and the Arabs hung its eggs in their domes.

'No contagion, no hama, no Safar': the Prophet abolished the Arabs' omen in the owl, whose screech on a house they read as a call for blood — a creed that freed the birds from the curse of augury.

The peacock in al-Damiri: the fairest of birds to see and the ugliest of voice, and among its wisdom-signs that it cries out shamed at its feet; the books of manners remember it as the bird touched by pride — lore of the adab, not Prophetic report.

The anqa of the Arabs: the ungettable bird, proverb for the far and vanished — 'an anqa of the uttermost west'; al-Damiri himself dwells on it as one of the most famous bird-names nobody knows — a creature of language and tale rather than the field.

God sent down on Israel in the wilderness manna and quails — 'eat of the good things We have provided you' — a heavenly provision with neither toil nor waste.

'When you hear the crowing of roosters ask God's bounty, for they have seen an angel' — the bird that wakes for dawn and witnesses what we do not see; and Aisha's simile of the cockerel that crows with the roosters.

One of the four the Prophet forbade to kill, with the ant, the bee and the hoopoe — a strong-clawed bird that does its good work in the Arabian wild, so its killing was forbidden.

'The aqiqa is liked even with a sparrow' — Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Taymi: the smallest of birds can stand in the sacrifice's place with Medina's jurists, a door to the law's gentleness toward the weak.

The vulture and the rakhma in al-Damiri: among the greatest birds of prey, in the Arabs' proverb a sign of far-off end and long age — 'older than a vulture'; al-Qazwini names among the mountain raptors those that never come near the settled world.

An ant in the Valley of the Ants warned its people of Solomon's army and he smiled at her words; the surah of the Ant is named for her, and the Prophet forbade killing her with the bee, the hoopoe and the shrike.

In the lexicon, asal is the saliva of the bee, which God made a healing for people; the Arabs use the word for anything found sweet {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.11602}. Using honey as medicine is permitted, and most scholars read the Qur'anic verse as saying that honey contains healing {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.11603}. The Hanafis and Hanbalis hold that a tenth is due on honey, relying on prophetic and early reports, and the Hanafis require that the bees be on tithe land; the Malikis and Shafi'is hold that honey carries no zakat {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.11603} {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.11604} {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.11605}. The Hanbalis and al-Zuhri set its threshold at ten faraq; Abu Hanifa requires a tenth on any amount; Abu Yusuf takes value as the measure {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.11605}.

God inspired the bee to take homes in the mountains, the trees and what people build, and to eat of every fruit; from its belly comes a drink of many colours in which there is healing for people, and the surah of the Bee is named for it.

A parable of the weakness of what is called upon besides God: if they joined to create a fly they could not, and if the fly snatched something from them they could not recover it.

Among the signs upon Pharaoh's people were the frogs, coming upon them in their vessels and food until they wearied of them; the Shafi'is forbid killing it and a prohibition from the Prophet is reported.

God is not ashamed to set forth a parable of a gnat or of anything smaller; an example drawn from the smallest creature takes nothing from the truth, while the disbelievers ask what God could mean by it.

The second sign upon Pharaoh's people after the flood: the lice — others read it as fleas, weevils, or the small wingless locust.

Among the signs sent upon Pharaoh's people was the locust with the flood, the lice, the frogs and the blood; on the Day of Resurrection people come out of the graves like scattered locusts, and the jurists allow eating it even in ihram.

The day people shall be like scattered moths and the mountains like carded wool — the image of the Last Day drawn from the smallest of creatures driven apart in every direction.

The Prophet named five creatures vermin that may be killed in and out of the sanctuary: the mouse, the scorpion, the crow, the kite and the rabid dog, for the harm they do.

The likeness of those who take protectors besides God is the spider that takes a house, and the frailest of houses is the spider's house, if they only knew; the surah of the Spider is named for this parable.

The earth-creature ate Solomon's staff, and when he fell it became clear to the jinn that had they known the unseen they would not have tarried in the humiliating torment — a small insect that toppled a great tale in Solomon's kingdom.

The crocodile in al-Damiri: a great beast of the Nile and the big rivers, some passing ten cubits; the jurists counted it among water creatures and differed on eating its flesh, and al-Qazwini tells of river-beasts like it in the seas of the world.

Darkness upon darkness in a deep sea, covered by waves above which are waves above which are clouds; if the sea were ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would run out before His words did, though We brought its like again.

God made lawful the game of the sea and its food, provision for you and for travellers; He tested the Sabbath town whose fish came to them openly on their Sabbath and came not the day they kept it not; and from the sea you draw ornaments and eat fresh flesh.

The fish Moses and his servant took for provision; at the rock it made its way into the sea in a tunnel — the sign of Moses' meeting with al-Khidr, which Satan made the servant forget to mention.

From the two seas come pearl and coral; in Paradise the righteous wear bracelets of gold and pearl and the houris are like hidden pearls; Malik laid down no zakat on pearls.

God made lawful the game of the sea and its food, provision for you and for travellers, while land game is forbidden to you in ihram; from the two seas come pearl and coral and fresh fish.

The turtle in al-Damiri: a beast of land and sea carrying its house on its back — a house never demolished; the jurists place it among water creatures and differ on eating it.

The whale that swallowed Jonah while he was blameworthy; he called through the darkness — 'There is no god but You; glory to You; I was among the wrongdoers' — and God answered him, cast him sick upon the bare shore and grew over him a gourd plant. In hadith Abu Ubayda's army ate of the beached anbar for days.

'The righteous drink from a cup whose mixture is camphor — a spring at which God's servants drink, making it gush forth as they will': the cool of camphor the mixture of the righteous' cup.

'Shake the trunk of the palm and fresh ripe dates will drop on you' — said to Mary when the pangs drove her to its trunk; tall palms with clustered sheaths; in Paradise palms and pomegranates; and over it the jurists placed zakat and share-cropping.

God swore by the fig and the olive, by Mount Sinai and this secure town, at the head of Surah al-Tin, that He made man in the best of moulds.

'They are given to drink a cup whose mixture is ginger', from a fountain there named Salsabil — the hot root of India made the cool drink of the people of Paradise.

God grew over Jonah, sick on the bare shore, a gourd plant shading him with broad leaves — said to be the squash that grows without a stem.

Among God's signs in the earth the vine grows in trellised and untrellised gardens; in Paradise are gardens of vines, and in the parable of the two gardens one had grapes and palms.

Israel said to Moses: we cannot endure one food — call on your Lord to bring forth for us what the earth grows of herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils and onions; 'Would you exchange what is lower for what is better?'

The Lote Tree of the Furthest Bound beside which is the Garden of Refuge, where the Night Journey reached its limit; in Paradise the lote is thornless, and when Sheba's people turned away God gave them in exchange for their two gardens gardens of bitter fruit, tamarisk and a few lote trees.

Whoever does an atom's weight of good sees it and whoever does an atom's weight of evil sees it; were it the weight of a mustard seed in a rock or in the heavens or the earth God would bring it forth.

A blessed olive tree neither eastern nor western whose oil would almost glow though fire never touched it; of what the earth brings forth are olives, palms and vines, and a tree issuing from Mount Sinai producing oil.

'Let man look at his food': We poured down water, split the earth and grew in it grain, grapes, clover, olives, palms, dense gardens, fruit and pasture — and for Paradise's people, fruits uncounted, neither cut off nor forbidden, and fruit of what they choose.

God brings forth from the earth its pasture — fruit and fodder as provision for you and your herds; He brings forth the pasture then turns it to dusky stubble.

In the gardens are palms and pomegranates, palms and pomegranates among sheathed spathes in rows — of the good things God brings forth in the earth.

God is the splitter of the grain and the stone of the fruit, bringing forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living; the likeness of those who spend their wealth in God's way is a grain that grows seven ears, in each ear a hundred grains; and grain in the blade and fragrant herbs.

'Among thornless lote-trees and talh clustered, and shade extended': most commentators read the talh as the banana tree, the Hijazis a tree whose fruit the camels eat — the Quran keeps the name wide over the trees of Paradise.

God exchanged Sheba's two gardens for two gardens of bitter fruit, tamarisk, and a few lote trees — the saltbush whose fruit is no use, punishment for those who turned away and disbelieved the blessing.

The tree God forbade to Adam and his wife; Satan whispered 'the tree of immortality and a kingdom that never decays'; they ate, their nakedness appeared, and they began covering themselves with the leaves of the Garden — and God relented and guided.

The stars and the trees both prostrate; God brings forth crops, olives, palms, vines and every fruit; the likeness of what He sends down is the rain by which He revives the earth after its death; and in the sanctity of Mecca its trees may not be cut.

A tree that springs from the root of Hell, its spathes like devils' heads, the food of the sinner, boiling in bellies like molten brass.

God created man from dust, then from a drop, then fashioned him a man; the human from dried clay of dark mud and the jinn from smokeless flame — 'You made me of fire and made him of clay.'

The serviceable clouds between heaven and earth, piled masses through which lightning breaks and from which drops of hail descend; and the cloud that shaded Israel in the wilderness over the manna and the quails.

He cast in the earth anchors lest it shake with you, rivers and paths that you may be guided; He spread it, levelled it, laid it out with mountains, fruits and springs — and it is a mosque and a means of purification.

Lord of the two easts and the two wests, Lord of the easts and the wests and all between them, if you understand; to God belong the east and the west — wherever you turn, there is the face of God.

Have you seen the fire you kindle — did you make its tree, or did We? We made it a reminder and a provision for desert travellers; and He who gives you fire from the green tree, when you kindle from it; and the fire of Moses in the holy tree.

God opened the gates of heaven with pouring rain and split the earth into springs so the waters met at a measured decree; We bore him on planks and nails — the unjust drowned and the believers were saved.

Adorned for people is the love of desires — women, children, heaped-up hoards of gold and silver; in Paradise the righteous wear bracelets of gold and green garments of fine and thick silk; and those who hoard gold and silver, give them tidings of a painful doom.

God built seven heavens in layers — you see no flaw in the Merciful's creation — a roof raised and guarded against every rebellious devil, with stages, gates and lamps.

God sent down iron — in it great might and uses for people, and that He may know who aids Him and His messengers unseen; and He made it soft for David: 'make coats of mail.'

God adorned the lower heaven with lamps and made them missiles against the devils; when the stars are dimmed; and the flaming darts by which the jinn are pelted when they steal a hearing of heaven.

The works of the disbelievers are like a mirage in a lowland: the thirsty think it water until, coming to it, they find nothing — and find God there paying their account in full.

The moon a light set in stations so you may know the count of years and reckoning; it was split in the Prophet's day as a sign for the people; and it wanes through phases until it returns like an old palm-stalk.

Mountains as pegs and anchors God cast in the earth lest it shake with you; He bade them glorify with David; and they nearly sank when the Trust was offered them — they refused to bear it, and man bore it.

God made the night for rest and the day for sight, each veiling the other — a sign for people; in their alternation are signs for those of understanding who remember Him standing, sitting and on their sides.

Joseph saw eleven planets, the sun and the moon prostrating to him; the Brilliant Star in the lamp of God's house; the planets scattered on the Last Day; and Abraham's fading star of which he said 'this is my Lord' until it set.

The rain by which God revives the earth after its death and scatters in it every kind of creature — the likeness of the guidance and knowledge He sends: good soil, hard soil and hollow ground are pictures of people with the revelation.

Rivers and springs run beneath the Garden and out of the rock of the earth — twelve springs gushed for Israel from the stone — and the Garden's likeness is rivers of water unstaling, rivers of milk, rivers of wine and rivers of honey.

The sea is made serviceable: from it you bring ornaments you wear and you see the ships ploughing through it that you may seek His bounty; He loosed the two seas meeting with a barrier between them they do not transgress; its water is pure and its game lawful.

God spreads the shade — had He willed He would have made it still — then set the sun as its guide; Moses rested in the shade of the tree saying 'My Lord, I am in need of whatever good You send down to me.'

The ship runs upon the sea by God's bounty to show you His signs; He made the ships serviceable to you that they run by His command and you seek His bounty; and He saved Noah and those with him in the vessel of planks and nails.

God made your sleep a rest and the night a garment; He takes the souls at their death and those that die not in their sleep, holding back the one decreed for death; and the sleepers of the cave lay three hundred years and nine.

By the stars men are guided through the darknesses of land and sea; God adorned the lower heaven with lamps and a guard against every rebellious devil; and when Abraham saw a star he said 'this is my Lord' — until it set.

The sun and the moon run their reckoned courses; the sun moves to its resting place — the decree of the Mighty, the Knowing — a radiance and a lamp by which men guide themselves and count the days.

The thunder glorifies His praise and the angels from fear of Him; He sends the thunderbolts and strikes whom He wills; in lightning there is terror and hope and a dazzling of the eyes — and Amr ibn Abd Allah would leave off speech when he heard the thunder.

'We made from water every living thing'; from water God made man and every creature — what crawls on its belly, what walks on two legs and what walks on four — for God is the creator of all things.

Solomon's wind, made subject to him — its morning course a month and its evening a month; the barren wind against 'Ad which left nothing it touched without making it dust; and the fertilizing winds that revive the earth and spread His mercy.