The Bee who Obeys Allah

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

ا سَـــــــلاَمُ عَلَيــْــكُم وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكـَـاتُه

Reiichi remembered vividly the day he was not feeling very well. He had a fever and he coughed badly. His mummy told him: “What you need is a nice hot drink with honey, sweetie. I'll go the the market and find some honey to help you feeling better." She said softly under her angelic tone. 

"I wanna come too." Reiichi replied. Before his mother could detest, Reiichi had already put on his jacket and socks along with his teddy bear snow cap.  

As Reiichi and his mother were at the supermarket, they stopped in front of a small makeshift booth. The shelves were stocked with different kinds of honey.

“Oh, Mummy, there are all sorts of different colours!” Reiichi said excitedly. 

“Look, this honey is almost white, and this one is golden, and that one over there is brownish.” The little kid added.

“Yes, Reiichi”, her mum answered. “There are different sorts of honey. There’s clover honey, lavender honey, eucalyptus honey... and mixed wildflower honey.”

“But then, does honey come from flowers?” Reiichi asked.

Mummy chuckled. “No, it does not darling” his mum told him. 

“You know bees make honey. The bees fly from flower to flower to collect a fine powder called pollen and a liquid called nectar. And then they make the honey with their bodies. Since there are different sorts of flowers with different colours and smells, this produces different sorts of honey." She gestured Reiichi closer to the shelves.

"If the bees have been only on clover flowers, they make clover honey, which is almost white, like the one in this jar." She said, pointed to one of the jar.

"If the bees have been on lavender, as in the South of France, you get this nice golden colour. And if the bees go about on all sorts of wild flowers, they produce mixed wildflower honey.”

Reiichi looked amazed. “And what colour is mixed wildflower honey?”

“Well, it depends on the flowers." Mummy answered. “Look, the honey in this jar is yellow, this one is brownish, and yet they’re both mixed wildflower honey.”

Reiichi thought for a while and then he asked: “But who has taught the bees how to make honey?”

His mum smiled at him.

“Allah has taught them, Reiichi”, she explained. “When the bees make honey, they obey Allah.

Do you know Allah tells us about bees in the Quran? Listen to what He says.”

And then Reiichi's Mum recited for him the verses from surat an-Nahl, “The bees".

And your Lord inspired to the bee, "Take for yourself among the mountains, houses,
and among the trees and [in] that which they construct.

Then eat from all the fruits and follow the ways of your Lord laid down [for you]." There emerges from their bellies a drink, varying in colors, in which there is healing for people.
Indeed in that is a sign for a people who give thought.

(Qur'an - Surah Nahl l, 68-69).