The Parable of a Gnat
إِنَّ اللَّـهَ لَا يَسْتَحْيِي أَن يَضْرِبَ مَثَلًا مَّا بَعُوضَةً فَمَا فَوْقَهَا ۚ فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا فَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّهِمْ ۖ وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَيَقُولُونَ مَاذَا أَرَادَ اللَّـهُ بِهَـٰذَا مَثَلًا ۘ يُضِلُّ بِهِ كَثِيرًا وَيَهْدِي بِهِ كَثِيرًا ۚ وَمَا يُضِلُّ بِهِ إِلَّا الْفَاسِقِينَ
“Indeed, Allah is not timid to present an example - that of a gnat or what is smaller than it. And those who have believed know that it is the truth from their Lord. But as for those who disbelieve, they say, "What did Allah intend by this as an example?" He misleads many thereby and guides many thereby. And He misleads not except the defiantly disobedient,” (2:26).
I have been pondering over this powerful aya as we enter our second week of quarantine and witness the toll that covid-19 is taking on our global community.
This aya is in specific reference to the hypocrites who tried to raise doubts regarding the authenticity of the Qur’an. They would mock and ridicule and try to undermine the Qur’an by saying, “It surely couldn’t be a divine text if mosquitos and spiders are used as examples!”
I wonder how they would respond now when a virus that is imperceptible to the naked eye has brought us all to our knees, as we pray for a cure and ask Allah to alleviate our condition.
Allah does not shy away from presenting an example that is small because within that example are depths of understanding that we may never be able to acquire. It is a humbling experience to fully understand how truly limited we are in our knowledge and our material senses. When the hypocrites ridicule, it’s only their own delusion that they mock. In this aya, Allah says that the believers “know” that it’s from their Lord while the disbelievers “say.” There is such a vast difference between those two states of being, knowing and saying. How often do we say and speculate over that which we do not know?
Abu Sa'eed Al-Khudree reported that the Prophet said:
“When the Son of Adam wakes from his sleep, all of his body parts seek refuge from his tongue, saying: ‘Fear Allah with regard to us, for indeed we are part of you. So if you are correct, then we will be correct and if you are corrupted, then we shall be corrupted.”
May Allah grant us beneficial knowledge that grounds our steps, our speech, and the state of our hearts.