What Do the Bible and Quran Say About the Ants?


by Prof.dr. Ibrahim Khalil - Date: 2007-06-29 - Word Count: 904 Share This!

One of the inherited doctrines of mankind is that the Quran is quoted or borrowed from the Bible.
The Bible says that Ants are not strong, they have no commander, no overseer or ruler, However, the entomologists say that the Ants are very strong and they live a strict social life and they have commander, overseer and ruler,
The Quran says that Ants live a social life and they have houses and one Ant which lived in a valley of Ants did communicate with King Solomon.

The activities of ants have long enthralled scientists. These insects have the strength to carry food up to seven times their own body weight, and set up amazingly complex colonies, nests and homes, with social orders in which every member has a role. Each ant in a colony seemed to have its own schema, and yet the group as a whole appeared to be highly organized. This organization is accomplished under strict supervision and through interaction among individuals.
Ants live together in large colonies organized under one powerful female ant which rules, known as the queen. Ants usually nest in soil or wood, and a single ant colony may contain as many as 20 million individual ants. Most of them are female; only a few male ants are produced to mate with the queen.

One of the most unusual things about ants is their ability to communicate. Signaling each other with distinctive hormones, ants work together to build and move their nests, raise the young, and find food. Ants sometimes fight other ant colonies, and they even arrest other ants and enslave them.

The Ants in the Bible

Ants are mentioned twice in the Bible.

Proverb 6:6-8

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

Proverbs 30:24-25 (King James Version)

24There be four things which are little (smallest) upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:
25The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat (food) in the summer;
Ants are creatures of little strength
Ants are a people not strong

In the Bible the only characters that match the science are the wisdom of the Ants and their ability to word hard.
However, the Bible says that Ants have no commander, no overseer or ruler which is not scientifically true because the Ants have commander, overseer and ruler.
Also, the Bible says that the Ants are not strong which is not scientifically correct because the Ants can carry up to 50 times their weight.
How come that a weight lifter who is capable to carry up to 50 times his weight is considered NOT STRONG?

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The Ants in the Quran:
Ants are mentioned once in the Quran.
Surah 27, entitles "The Ant"
In this Surah, there is an attractive story of Solomon's troops

In Surah 27:16-19
[16] And Solomon was David's heir. He said: "O ye people! We have been taught the speech of birds and on us has been bestowed (a little) of all things: this is indeed Grace Manifest (from Allah.)"
[17] And before Solomon were marshaled his hosts, of Jinns and men and birds, and they were all kept in order and ranks.
[18] At length, when they came to a (lowly) valley of ants, one of the ants said: "O ye ants get into your habitations, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you (under foot) without knowing it."
19] So he smiled, amused at its speech; and he said: "O my Lord! so order me that I may be grateful for Thy favors, which Thou hast bestowed on me and on my parents, and that I may work the righteousness that will please Thee: and admit me, by Thy Grace, to the ranks of Thy righteous Servants."

King Solomon was given a special power by Allah. This power was the ability to hear and understand the communications of human beings, jinn, and animals. His kingdom was outstanding, and his army was dreadful. Even one foot from one of his soldiers would have been enough to squeeze an entire colony of vulnerable ants, but Solomon heard the appeal of those ants and was reminded of the favor that Allah had given him.
Interestingly, the Quran clearly indicates the female gender of workers ants-a fact that could not have been known when the Quran was revealed. The Quran is talking about feminine ant.

"He created the earth for all creatures... Which of your Lord's marvels can you deny?" (Surah 55:10, 13)

Also, the Quran says that all the creatures on earth are people like us and they live in communities like us!

"There is not an animal (that lives) on the earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but (forms part of) communities like you. Nothing have We omitted from the Book, and they (all) shall be gathered to their Lord in the end." [ Surah 6:38]

In conclusion:
The Bible says that Ants are not strong, they have no commander, no overseer or ruler, However, the entomologists say that the Ants are very strong and they live a strict social life and they have commander, overseer and ruler,
The Quran says that Ants live a social life and they have houses and one Ant which lives in a valley of Ants did communicate with King Solomon.
My question to the intellectual fair one: Is the Quran quoted from the Bible? And which book contradicts with the Sciences?


Related Tags: bible, ants, allah, quran, king solomon, entomologists

Professor Dr. Ibrahim Khalil
Prof. of Clinical and Chemical Pathology,
Head of Clinical Microbiology and Infection Control Unit,
Ain-Shams University. Cairo, Egypt.
And, President of The Egyptian Society of Inventors.
Member of the Egyptian union of Writers

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