Semblance of Species

Our nature and instinct are two distinct and separate things. We have a mental semblance with other species like goat, sheep, cow, buffalo, dog cat, snake, pigeon, dove etc. And in our nature we have our own distinct position and status, which has been granted to us by that Divine Being, Who is Supreme and Above all species and all individuals of the universe. And this bestowal or grant is the sagacious intellect or the power of contemplation. No reasonable person can claim that animals do not possess mind and sense. In certain matters animals demonstrate more intelligence, common sense and alertness than man.

There are quadrupeds which have the striking ability of foresight Cats, dogs and many other animals can foresee the forthcoming disastrous events and earthquakes. Before the historic earthquake of San Francisco, in 1906, dogs started barking causing unrest and disturbance for die people. Water-fowls nestled on tall trees and pigs started fighting with one another. Cows broke away in sheer fright. Similarly, the rats living underground; the weasels, and many other animals made their escape from die ancient Greek city, Hellas, five days prior to the earthquake. The sky over the city of Conception in Chile was swarmed with flocks of terrified and screaming birds, which followed the destruction of the city, by an earthquake.

Powerful Senses

Earthquakes, usually, do not strike suddenly. Interlocking of the subterranean sedimentary rocks is the climax of the primary stage of an earthquake. Constantly increasing geological pressure brings about unusual changes in the crest and trough of the upper crust of the earth and the waves of the earthquake begin to appear in the subterranean rocks. A slight change takes place in the magnetic field of the earth. Human senses are unable to detect these initial conditional changes but the animals, in this regard can immediately feel the slightest cracking of the subterranean rocks before the earthquake actually strikes.

Man’s auditory abilities are comparatively very limited. Man can only hear the sounds having the frequency of twenty cycles per second but sound waves with frequency of more than twenty thousand cycles per second are inaudible to human ears whereas dogs, cats and foxes can even hear the sounds of frequencies of up to sixty thousand Cps. Rats, bats, whales and dolphins can hear the sound waves whose frequencies range up to hundred thousand Cps. In the ocean, fish can feel even the extremely slight vibrations. Man's range of sight is also quite poor whereas the bees can even see the ultraviolet rays. Falcon's eye sees a thing eight times enlarged than it appears to man.

Detective Dogs

Dogs are wed the world over by the police, for a long time, for tracing out and for the identification of the culprits. There are about five million sensory cells in the human nose whereas some races of dogs are ordained with more than two hundred million of such cells and the smelling power of dogs is accordingly many million times more than the human smelling power.

Division of Eggs

One can adjudge the wisdom and Cleverness of an ostrich from the division and grouping of it eggs, It divides its eggs in three groups. It bury few of them in the sand, few are left out in the open sun and the rest are incubated. When the chicks are hatched, they are fed upon the liquid diet obtained from the eggs which were left out in the Sun. This feed accelerates the rate of nourishment of the chicks and when the chicks grow a bit, the buried eggs are dug out and after cracking them they are left in the open. This causes worms and insects in these eggs which becomes the readily available feed for the young ones of the ostrich. Later on the chicks feed themselves upon grass and soft vegetation until they themselves become adults. The planning exhibited by the ostrich regarding division of its eggs, is indeed a clever use of gifted intelligence.

Before the Invention of the Electricity

The house (nest) of the weaver bird; a bird smaller than a sparrow, is a masterpiece of architectural planning. This doom like hanging nest has rooms, swings, and even ‘beds’ to rest 'This small, two inch in size, bird has this much sense and wisdom that it captures fireflies to illuminate its ‘house’. By using its prey as a Lamp it keeps its house lighted. This tiny bird knew how to keep its nest lighted much before the discovery of electricity by man and harnessing it for his use. For generations it has been using the fireflies, as bulbs.

Sound of the Rain

Kiwi, a New Zealand bird, uses an interesting technique to get its food. When despite hectic efforts it cannot find anything to eat, it produces a sound, which resembles the sound of rain. Insects considering that it is raining, come out of their hidden places and fall prey to this bird.

Clever Fox

The fox is known for its cleverness and wickedness. The day when it cannot lay its hand on any prey, it decides to try a clever trick and lies down inflating itself by drawing-in a deep breath. Birds, considering it dead, come down to feed themselves upon the ‘dead’ fox but before they can enjoy their meal, the fox helps itself to their meal.

Banana Orchards

J.H. William has mentioned an interesting event of two young elephants in his book; "The Elephant". These two elephants usually roamed and wandered freely with sounding bells in their necks, enabling the keepers to know their whereabouts. One day both visited the nearby pond and filled the bells with mud, consequently the bells jammed and lid not ring any more. They both made their way to the nearby banana orchard and feasted themselves with bananas of their choice to their satisfaction without any fear of the keepers.

A Trick

Two dolphins were playing ‘hide and seek’ with an eel. The clever eel dived and took refuge in a hole. The cleverness of the dolphin was noticeable when it caught a fish, which had a poisonous sting and inserted it in the hole where the eel was hiding. The eel on seeing the stingy fish was forced to come out of its shelter and thus the game started over again.

Regardfulness of a Lion

The founder of the Qalander Conscious and the grandson of Hazrat Taj-ud-Deen ba'ba Nagpuri, Qalander ba'ba Auliya has stated an event of the regardful ness of a lion and has given its scientific explanation thereof. He states, "Once, grand-father, Taj-ud-Deen climbed a hill in the jungle of Waki Sharif (India) with a few others. When someone hinted about the presence of lions in the jungle, he smilingly said that he who fears the lion may go back while he himself intended to rest there for a while and most probably the lion would come but don't bother and let him stay. Few of us hid ourselves in the nearby trees and bushes and most quitted for the good. It was the summer season, cool breeze and the shade of the foliage were intoxicatingly tranquil, grandfather chose to lie down on the thick grass and closed his eyes. It wasn’t long before that the fright of the jungle grew intense and sense of some-thing­will-happen captured my mind. I was waiting intently. This waiting wasn't for any Sadhu, Yogi, Saint or for any human being, but it was for a beast, who, at least in my mind; was moving step by step.

I was looking towards grand-father, and then was moving step by step. I was looking towards grand-father, and then huge, a lion approved which was climbing up the slope of the hill, very slowly, very respectfully. He was advancing towards grand-father, with eyes half closed, in a short while he reached close to grand­father and licked the feet of grand- father who in the meantime was sound-asleep. The beast closed his eyes in ecstasy and placed his head on the ground almost touching the feet of grand-father, who was still sleeping unaware of the presence of the beast Lion, after gathering his courage, started licking the feet of grand-father. This woke grand­father up, he patted the beast on the head and said, "You came, I am pleased to see you healthy, well, now go!" The lion wagged his tail in gratefulness and took his leave.

I thought over this incident again and again, nobody had ever witnessed the lion coming to grand-father before. Therefore, we have to admit that the lion and grand-father, were mentally acquainted with each other. There is one way for this acquaintance, the waves of Ego (the thought waves) which interacted between grand-father and the lion, were the source of their acquaintance and meeting. This is how intuition takes place in the Percipients and cognisers. By this incident it is evident that in animals too, intuition takes place. In this regard, man and all other creatures are equal and alike.

Waves of Ego

This law should be remembered with great consideration that most of the thoughts coming to our mind are not related to our affairs. They belong to the nearby and far away creatures which exist somewhere in the universe. The concepts belonging to those creatures come to us through waves and when we try to establish a link between these thoughts with our life, we simply fail. Few things are worth considering regarding the waves of Ego. According to the scientists light is the only thing that has the maximum velocity but it is not that swift and nimble that it could eliminate the distances of Time and Space. But the Waves of the Ego (thoughts) are present everywhere in the Boundlessness simultaneously gripping the distances of Time and Space in their clutches. In other words, Time and Space distances do not exist for these waves. The distance which the light waves have to cover up, existence of that distance is not at all acknowledged by these waves.

Silent Conversation

Human beings are conversant with the act of articulation from the very beginning. In talking, the sound waves with predetermined meanings, convey the information to the listeners. This method is a duplication of that communication style which takes place between the waves of Ego.

It is a common observation that a dumb person conveys everything with a slight movement of his lips and those who are versed with lip-reading understand everything, which he desires to convey. This too, is a replica of the same method.

Animals convey their feelings to their fellows without producing any sound. In this case, too, the waves of Ego are operative. Trees also converse and communicate with one another regardless of distance existing between them. This conversation not only takes place amongst the nearby trees, but the trees at far off distances also take part in it. The same law is valid for the minerals as well Stones, pebbles and the dust particles also negotiate with one another exactly in the same style.

Single Unconscious

Many events of people with spiritual powers, prophets are evident that only one and the same Unconscious is actively functioning in the whole universe. Every wave of the seen and the Unseen understands the meanings of the other thought, even if they are located at the opposite poles of the universe. Understanding the significance and meaningfulness of the Seen and the Unseen is the life essence of the universe. We, with a considered contemplation about this life essence, which is our own life essence as well, can explore the conditions and situations of other planets besides the other planets. We can discover the thoughts of man and animals, can acquaint ourselves with activities of angels and jinns, and know the internal stimuli of plants and minerals. Continuous concentration transmutes the mind into Cosmic Unconscious and the artificial self-adopted shell of our personality is emancipated from the clutches of Ego and begins to observe and understand anything required and preserves it in the conscious".

An Ideal Society

Life styles of animals very closely resembles the human social life which proves to be an evidence of the active use of intelligence on the part of animals. Few such examples, for the interest of the readers are stated here. The life of honeybee; a member of the insect family, could be an outstanding example in this regard. Honeybees live in a colony of honey-comb, which comprises of thousands of hexagonal cells made of wax. These are headed by a Queen. There are about two thousand male-bees, rest of the subjects are females, numbering around twenty thousand per honey-comb. Females are imperfect i.e. neuters and are to perform the duties of workers.

Queen, the most beautiful of all, remains in the honey-comb, lays one to two thousand eggs a day. The eggs are of two types; fertilized and non-fertilized. Queens and workers are hatched out of the fertilized eggs and the males are produced from the non-fertilized eggs. Few worker-bees always remain in queen's service.

They take every possible care of the queen. The average age of the queen is three years. The guard-bees protect and serve the queen until she actively and efficiently starts performing her administrative and reproductive duties. But when she grows older or becomes negligent of her duties, these guards assemble around her and she is stung to death by the collective attack of her guards. The news of the death of the queen is announced to the colony by few bees who hover over the hive emitting a peculiar sound, many times.

In order to appoint a new queen, three days old fertilized eggs are, separated. When larvae hatches, they are fed upon pollen-grains and nectar collected from flowers. In a few days larvae envelope themselves in cocoons growing into pupae. The cells containing pupae are sealed up with wax by the workers. The pupae come out of their cocoons, after fifteen days, as adult bees. One of them is appointed as the queen of the hive and the rest of them fly away to build their own separate hives. The workers are smaller than the queen bee, and their average age is also only two months, which they spent in rigorous labor, starting from the third day of their life after hatching out of the eggs. Honey comb is built by the workers from the wax produced in their wax-producing glands. The hive is divided into many sections. The central portion is the largest and is reserved for the queen. There are hundreds of cells for males. Besides apartments for the workers there are storage god owns for pollen-grains and honey, to be consumed later on.

How is Honey Made?

Supply of food for all the bees of the hive is the duty and responsibility of the workers. They hunt nectar from flower to flower for the preparation of honey. The sweet juice present in flowers is collected through the tube like tongue and deposited in a sac like structure; the honey stomach. The pollens are collected in pouches located in their hind legs. After this the bee returns to its hive and the collected pollens are deposited in the god owns. In the meantime the nectar present in the honey stomach, undergoing many chemical changes, is changed into honey, that too is stored in the cells and is sealed with wax, for use in winter. But man stealthily takes away their reserves and they once again set to prepare the honey with the same zeal and vigor.

The males are extremely lazy. They only perform the duties of a husband to the queen. When the queen is mature, she flies from the hive, the males chase her and one of them succeeds in impregnating her. They have no other function to perform except the sexual duty. When queen begins to lay eggs they die of their natural death.

Sensibility and Wisdom

In summer when it is feared that the heat will soften the wax, this small insect cleverly saves its house from destruction. All the workers, during a hot day sit on the edges of the hive-cells keeping their wings out of the cells and the air is fanned in the cells by fast motion of their wings in order to control the temperature in the honey-comb and the honey-comb is thus saved from the hazardous threat of melting.

God has inspired this ability in a bee, that it does not suck the nectar of a flower which is diseased or poisonous. It only chooses those flowers that extract the wholesome essence from the earth. This is the reason that honey is curative for many diseases and ailments.

The Clever Ant

Sagacity of a tiny creature like ant could be well judged from the following story. An ant invited King Solomon and his army to a feast. King Solomon, who was a great king and an exalted prophet of God, his army besides men included jinns, quadrupeds, beasts and birds. He enjoyed all the authority and control over the season and winds. He picked up the ant and placing it on his palm, asked; "Tell me; whose kingdom is vast, yours or mine?" The ant replied, "Only God knows whose kingdom is great but I know it well that at his moment, the palm of King Solomon is my throne."

The Ruler Ant

King Solomon was the youngest son of David, he succeeded his father in 965 BC and ruled for about forty years. God had bestowed upon him the ability of understanding the languages of animals. Once he was proceeding on a venture with a grand convoy of men, jinns and animals. Despite the large strength of the army nobody could dare to be undisciplined in order or ranks. All were marching in their respective columns and troops in obedience to their great marshal; King Solomon. When they reached a valley, occupied and inhabited by ants. The ruler of ants, seeing the multitude of army advancing towards their valley told his subjects, "Enter your holes, what do Solomon and his army know of our presence in the valley, least we are trodden down under the feet of his army, in ignorance on their part".

This event has been stated by God in the following manner. "And We gave Knowledge to David and Solomon and they both said," Praise be to God, Who has favored us above many of His servants who believe; "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 all things: this is indeed Grace Manifested".

And before Solomon marshaled army of jinns and men and birds and they were all kept in order and ranks. 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 army crush you under their feet without knowing it." So he Solomon, smiled amused at his speech and he said, ":O, my Lord; so order me for Thy favors, which Thou haste 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." (S;27: V;15-19)

Tiny creatures like ants have their own specific social set-up, all the systems of human life are duly present in this tiny insect's Life. A colony of ants comprises of thousands of members of different and various forms, shapes and colors. There is queen for each colony. Every member of the colony obeys her orders. In a colony of ants there are artisans, engineers, horticulturists etc. Military organization is also there. They are dutiful and sacrificing. Every one performs its duties efficiently.

There are both male and female ants but reproduction is carried out only by the queen. If the queen dies accidentally, a new queen is not appointed like bees, but they merge into some other colony of ants. Colony of ants offers a very fine and typical example of division of work. The work is divided amongst various types of ants and every one performs its duty to the best of its ability. Workers supply food and look after the members of new generation. Laborers handle the goods. Males participate in reproduction and when the queen is impregnated they are no longer required and gradually annihilate.

Queen's body enlarges when the time for laying eggs approaches. Attendants and workers become more care taking. A new community of ants emerges from the eggs laid by the queen. Twenty to thirty eggs are laid in a week time, which are detached from the body of the queen by the workers and are safely kept for incubation. Larvae hatch out in a few days from the eggs and gradually develop themselves into adult ants. About half a dozen eggs are looked after with special attention, as they would be new queens. After the birth of new queens the whole community is divided into six or seven parts, each part headed by its respective queen. Workers of each queen excel in service and obedience to their queen. How does this tiny insect work so organizing with mutual co-operation? This sense of organization and the mutual co-consequential of operation is inspired to it by Nature. This disciplined organization is indeed consequential sensibility and intelligence.

 Honey Ant

One type of ant is the Honey ant which stores the fruit juice in its stomach and clings to something in an upside down posture. Queen and other ants lick its body till the honey in her body is exhausted.

Horticulturist Ants

Another type of ants are horticulturist, These ants cultivate the orchards of fungus, in the galleries and cells of their habitations. 'These orchards are nurtured artfully. These are the orchards of fruits for the ants and they provide food for all the members of the community.

The Laborer Ants

These ants collect grains and store them in cells for consumption at the hour of need. These ants are so duty conscious that they carry loads ten times larger than their body weight.

The Engineer Ants

These ants perform excellent and skilled piece of work. They build a large hall in the center, which is used as the royal place and is connected through galleries, all sides. It is kept very clean and tidy as it is the queen's lodge. Workers and laborers both remain busy to perform various services to the queen. There are cells in the galleries either to store food or for residence of workers and labors. The castle built by them is strong enough to stand against weather, water and heat.

The Tailor Ants

There are ants who are expert tailors. They sew leaves for the protection of the newly hatched leaves from the preying birds. These ants are so expert in stitching that anything they sew appears to be tailored by some expert tailor.

The Soldier Ants

There are ants that could be termed as the soldier ants. They are mostly nomadic, they live like soldiers in camps, in jungles. These ants travel in convoys. Their queen remains in the center of its attendants. The convoy remains mobile during the day-time. Any insect obstructing them is killed by the guards. At night they assemble on a tree and arrange themselves in a pillar like formation. The way they assemble, for the over-night stay, is quite interesting. The queen and her attendants stay in the center surrounded by the workers and the soldiers. Gallery like passage is left in their formation for ventilation, as if they know the scientific principles of respiration. In the morning with the rise of the sun, after their over-night stay, a contingent of dozen or so start their journey others following them begin to move and the convoy once again sets off on it journey.

Ants Free of Time and Space

There are special type of ants which have the extra ordinary ability to dissolve themselves in the air, eliminating the distances involved, reaching another place with in no time. As a result of many experiments conducted, on these ants scientists have now proved that these ants can dissolve themselves in the air.

The Messenger Bird

The story of King Solomon and the queen of Sheba as stated in the holy books and scriptures also tells us about the intelligence of a bird In the grand court of King Solomon jinns and animals besides men, were present according to ranks and order, to carry out any assignment entrusted to them. Once when the court of King Solomon was held in all its grandeur, Solomon noticing the absence of the Hoopoe, said, "Why is it, I see not the hoopoe? or is he among the absentees? I will certainly punish him with a severe penalty or execute him unless he comes up with the clear reason for his absence". The hoopoe tarried not long, he came up and in reply to the inquiry of King Solomon submitted, "I have come up with such information which will certainly be not in your knowledge, that is, in Yemen there is a Queen of Sheba. God has provided her with every requisite and she has a magnificent throne. The Queen and her subject practice the worship of the sun. Satan has misled them and they do not worship the One and Only God". King Solomon said, "Soon shall we see whether you have told the truth or lied. Take this letter of mine and deliver it to them and see what they have to say about it".

When hoopoe dropped the letter before the Queen, she was leaving for sun-worshipping. The queen studied the contents of the letter and said to her courtiers. "Here is a letter delivered to me, it is from Solomon and reads," In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Be ye not arrogant against me, but come to me in submission to the True God. "She said, after reading out the letter, "Ye chiefs advise me in this regard, no affair have I decided without your consultation. They replied, "There is no need to be afraid as we are endued with strength and given to vehement war but the command is yours, so consider what you decide" The queen expressed, "keeping in view, the way this letter is delivered to us, we should take a considered step in this regard and I would like to send an emissary to Solomon with gifts and presents". When the envoys of Queen of Sheeba reached Solomon he said, "Take these presents back and tell your Queen if she did not acknowledge my message, I shall come to Sheeba with a great army and they will never be able to defend themselves".

The envoys on their return narrated what they had seen in the court of King Solomon and told her that Solomon is not only a ruler of men but Jinns and animals are also ruled and governed by him. The Queen after hearing all this decided to submit and started for King Solomon. Solomon learning about her decision said to his courtiers "I want, that before the Queen could reach here, her royal throne be present in this Court".

Journey on Waves

A giant jinn said, "I can bring it here before' the court is adjourned by you". A man who possessed the knowledge of the Holy Book, on hearing this, said, "I'll bring it here before you could wink your eye". And Solomon turned and saw the throne of the Queen present in the court. He ordered, Transform this throne out of recognitions by her, let us see whether she is guided to the truth or not. So, when after some time Queen reached there, she was asked, "Is your throne like this?" The wise queen replied, "It appears to be the same" and added, "We had the idea of your unmatched power and it was so that I am here in submission and now this splendid event of throne is yet another demonstration of your unprecedented power and an eye-opener for us and I, once again express my submission to you Solomon took her to his palace, constructed magnificently by men and jinn engineers. It was unique in its loftiness, grandeur and marvelous decoration with gems. There was a water pole right at the entrance of the palace covered with transparent tiles of quartz which illusion the eyes and one would take it as water flowing on the floor. When the queen was led to the palace for her stay over there, she found water flowing on the floor, finding no other way to enter; she tucked up her skirts, uncovering her legs. Solomon informed her, "This is only a paved passage, smooth with slabs of glass". This was enough open her eyes in bewilderment It was a smashing blow upon her false dignity, vanity and pride, she felt humble and said admitting her fault, "O, my Lord, I have indeed wronged my soul, I do now submit with Solomon to the One Lord of the worlds". These are the few examples, out of thousands, to establish comprehensively that besides man, other creatures; the birds, quadrupeds, beasts, insects and jinns, all have intellect and consciousness.