DIVINE REVELATION AND INSPIRATION
The Quran says:
“Your Lord inspired the bee, saying, ‘Make your homes in the mountains, in the trees, and also in the structures which men erect.’” (16:68)
From this, one learns that some signs are similar to Divine revelation among animals. Therefore, studying these signs makes the issue of Divine revelation more comprehensible for us.
Revelation indicates the coming of guidance from an external source. A study of animals reveals that this source of knowledge is present among them. Certain features are found among animals that cannot be explained other than by accepting that they receive guidance from outside of themselves. Among these traits is the migration of particular creatures. Migration, especially of birds and fish, contains certain signs that can help us better understand the phenomena of Divine Revelation and inspiration.
Many birds periodically migrate from one part of the world to another in search of food or following the change of seasons. First, they leave their actual locations and head to more appropriate places at a great distance. Then, after a certain period, they return to their former sites.
Many studies have been done on these birds. From this, it has been learned that their migratory journeys are not some purposeless flying about. Instead, they indicate a very high level of organization, as meaningful as any well-planned journey of human beings. Further, observation has revealed that these flights take place extremely accurately on well-designed flyways.
The phenomenon of these birds’ migratory journeys is truly remarkable. Human beings can go from one place to another, but this is only possible when they have obtained detailed information about the route and destination from some external source. These external means include hearing from others, reading other people’s research findings, consulting guidebooks, and electronic devices that provide travel information like GPS systems. If man were cut off from this information accumulated over time, he would be unable to do anything.
For example, Al-Idrisi (Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Muhammad Al-Idrisi, 1100-1166 AD) initially took the concept of the Earth being round from the Indian Arin theory. Then, this idea reached Europe through the Latin translation of Al-Idrisi’s book entitled Kitab Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq (The Pleasure Excursion of One Who Is Eager to Traverse the Regions of the World). Then, with the experiments of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), further knowledge of the later generations was added. This chain kept growing in this way. Until the science of geography reached the level of progress we have today. Today, when the captain of a ship enters the sea and takes his ship from one coast of the ocean to another, or the pilot of an aeroplane takes off from one continent and lands on another, behind his action is presented the knowledge of a vast number of years of human experience.
However, birds have no means of acquiring knowledge for their migratory journeys. They are completely cut off from such means of information. There is no mutual exchange of information among birds as happens among humans. Because of this, one bird cannot benefit from another bird’s travel experiences and gather information about travel routes from them. No bird pens down route details in the form of a book so that other birds can obtain guidance by reading it. However, despite being utterly bereft of such facilities, birds engage in long-distance travel just as humans do. They fly with fantastic accuracy from one location to another, like a rocket zipping around in space directed through radio control.
The migratory flights of birds follow specific routes, sometimes entirely well-defined, over long distances, for instance, in the case of the paths of some birds shown in the map on the next page.
The map shows the transcontinental journeys of certain birds. It indicates that some birds leave Russia and other European countries in winter and head towards warmer parts of the world, including Africa and Asia. The birds do not leave their locations and ignorantly fly off in any random direction. Instead, their routes are accurately determined by what is most suitable for them. They adopt those routes in which they have to pass over the least possible stretches of the sea because, over dry land, they can come down if and when needed, but for them to land at sea is impossible.
One flock of these birds, coming from Europe, reaches a point where they encounter the Caspian Sea. Here, they turn. Departing from the edge of the Caspian Sea, they fly into Asia. The second group of birds flies till it reaches the Black Sea. There, they divide into two groups. One group travels by the western coast of the Black Sea, and the other by the eastern coast till they enter Asia. The third set of birds comes to Bulgaria and turns towards Turkey. Then, flying over coastal Syria and Lebanon, they arrive at the Suez. From there, they enter Egypt and advance further into Africa. The fourth set of birds passes over Greece and crosses the sea in the narrowest region, clearly adopting this route so that they fly as little as possible over the sea. The fifth group of birds travels towards France and, turning towards Spain, arrives near Gibraltar, where the sea is only around 10 miles wide. To cross the sea, the birds choose the most appropriate location. From here, they fly over the sea and land in Africa.
These journeys of the birds are truly unique. When humans go on these lengthy journeys, they use many different instruments and sources of information. However, these birds have neither a human mind nor access to various information-providing gadgets. How, then, do they successfully undertake such complicated journeys?
A scholar contends, “Birds have evolved a highly efficient means for travelling swiftly over long distances with great economy of energy.” However, these are just words. The reality is that nothing can prove that birds have developed this fantastic ability through any evolutionary process.
There are only two possible explanations for this phenomenon. One possibility is that these birds have full knowledge of the geography of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the seas on the way, which helps them complete their long journeys with amazing accuracy. Unfortunately, however, no research proves this. On the contrary, according to all our information, the birds lack geographical knowledge.
The only other possibility is that some ‘Knowledgeable Geographer’ is guiding the birds, that there is some hidden sort of remote control that provides the birds with continuous guidance, just as the rockets are—continuously guided through radio control.
The second scenario seems more likely. It also makes the concept of Divine Revelation fully comprehensible.
There are features in the life of creatures like migratory birds which cannot be explained without accepting that they are obtaining guidance from an external treasury of knowledge. The name for this in religious language is ‘Divine Revelation.’ The study of the life of such creatures makes the issue of Divine Revelation more understandable for us. Moreover, for something to be understood as a possibility or probability, it suffices for one to have certainty about its veracity.
Divine Revelation means God guides a person (a Prophet) through invisible means. This guidance explains what man should and should not do. However, this link of Divine Revelation (wahy) through a Prophet cannot be physically seen between God and man. Therefore, some people might ask, “Why should we believe it?”
However, reflecting on the migratory journeys of certain birds, the phenomenon of guidance, like Divine Revelation, becomes clearer to us. The birds travelling with incredible accuracy makes the issue of divine inspiration more understandable for us because no correct explanation of these birds’ journeys can be made other than by accepting that the birds are receiving some hidden sort of guidance from outside of them. When inside the birds, no known cause of this is present; it must be deemed something coming from an external source.
The Prophet acts as a link between God and man. He receives God’s Divine Revelation (wahy) and passes it to man. The Prophet’s claim that he receives Divine Guidance is undoubtedly strange. However, such hidden guidance is not strange in the universe. Numerous other instances here confirm that such guidance exists as a phenomenon in the universe. The case of migratory birds is just one example among countless others, briefly stated here.
