ZOOLOGY
THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS
أَلَمْ يَرَوْاْ
إِلَى الطَّيْرِ مُسَخَّرَاتٍ فِي جَوِّ السَّمَاء مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلاَّ اللّهُ
إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ
“Do they not look at
the birds, held poised
in the midst of (the air
and) the sky?
Nothing holds them up
but (the power of) Allah.
Verily in this are Signs
for those who believe.”
[Al-Qur’an 16:79]
Another verse also touches on birds:
أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا
إِلَى الطَّيْرِ فَوْقَهُمْ صَافَّاتٍ وَيَقْبِضْنَ مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلَّا
الرَّحْمَنُ إِنَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ بَصِيرٌ
“Do they not observe
the birds above them,
spreading their wings
and folding them in?
None can uphold them
except (Allah) Most Gracious:
truly it is He
that watches over all things.”
[Al-Qur’an 67:19]
The Arabic word amsaka literally means, ‘to put
one’s hand on, seize, hold, hold someone back,’
which expresses the idea that Allah holds the bird
up in His power. These verses stress the extremely
close dependence of the birds’ behaviour on Divine
law. Modern scientific data has shown the degree of
perfection attained by certain species of birds with
regard to the programming of their movements. It is
only the existence of a migratory programme in the
genetic code of the birds that can explain the long
and complicated journey that very young birds,
without any prior experience and without any guide,
are able to accomplish. They are also able to return
to the departure point on a definite date.
Prof. Hamburger in his book ‘Power and Fragility’
gives the example of ‘mutton-bird’ that lives in the
Pacific with its journey of over 24,000 km in the
shape of figure ‘8’. It makes this journey over a period of 6 months and comes back to its departure
point with a maximum delay of one week. The highly
complicated instructions for such a journey have to
be contained in the birds’ nervous cells. They are
definitely programmed. Therefore, should we not at
least reflect on the identity of this ‘Programmer’?
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