AhlulBayt (AS) International News Agency (ABNA): When Solomon (AS) and his army entered the land of the ants, an ant warned the others to retreat to their nests to avoid being trampled! How did the ant know of Solomon’s arrival—and how did it recognize him by name?
First, it should be said that all creatures—including ants—are commanded to obey God. Naturally, this requires a degree of understanding so they can fulfill this purpose, even if we do not know the details.
With the advancement of science, we are constantly discovering more about the abilities of animals, gaining a deeper appreciation for God’s power.
From a rational perspective, it is not impossible that creatures like ants, through unusual means—such as sensing air currents, sound waves, light reflections, smell, the movement of birds, and so on—can detect events around them and even understand many details. Just as ants are capable of splitting certain seeds before storage to prevent them from sprouting, it’s not far-fetched that God would endow them with the ability to quickly sense danger and recognize threats that could crush them.
However, despite all our progress in understanding the animal world, many mysteries remain.
The structure of the honeybee’s hive, the order governing the colony, the precision of ants in gathering winter supplies, how they store and organize them, the way animals defend themselves from enemies, their ability to find their nests from great distances, and hundreds or thousands of other such examples all show that much of the hidden world of animals is still beyond our knowledge.
Moreover, many animals, through training, can perform astonishing tasks that even humans are incapable of.
In this context, it’s still unclear how much animals truly know about the human world. Do they really understand who we are and what we do? Perhaps we don’t observe such intelligence in them, but does that mean it doesn’t exist? Therefore, if we read in the above story that the ants became aware of Solomon’s army approaching and warned each other to return to their nests to avoid being crushed, and that Solomon (AS) himself became aware of this, it should not be surprising.
Furthermore, Solomon’s reign was characterized by miraculous and extraordinary events. Some commentators have stated that such levels of awareness among certain animals during his time was itself a miracle, and it’s possible we may not witness the same in other times.
Given all this, there is no reason to interpret the stories of Solomon and the ants, or Solomon and the hoopoe, as merely symbolic or allegorical, especially when it is possible to accept them as literal truths.
Source: IslamQuest.net
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