LOCUSTS MOVING IN SWARMS
Author Zahid Ikram
سُوۡرَةُ القَمَر
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
خُشَّعًا أَبۡصَـٰرُهُمۡ يَخۡرُجُونَ مِنَ ٱلۡأَجۡدَاثِ
كَأَنَّہُمۡ جَرَادٌ۬ مُّنتَشِرٌ۬ (٧)
They will
emerge from their graves with downcast eyes, like swarming
locusts. (Quran, 54:7)
تو آنکھیں نیچی کئے ہوئے قبروں
سے نکل پڑیں گے گویا بکھری ہوئی ٹڈیاں (۷)
This verse describes all people's situation in the Hereafter
as one resembling swarming locusts. There is great wisdom in
this simile.
A great deal of information was obtained about locusts in
the twentieth century by conducting wide-ranging studies
using micro-cameras. Locust swarms contain
huge numbers of individual locusts that behave as a single
body. Coming together in swarms that are kilometers long and
wide, they look just like a dark cloud. It
has been established, for instance, that a single swarm of
desert locusts can cover 1,200 square
kilometers and contain between 40
to 80 million locusts per square kilometer.
The Reach of the Desert Locust, http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Locusts/locusts2.html
In addition, they deposit their eggs in sandy soils like
seeds and, after the larvae have remained underground for a
long period of time, they all emerge
together. After digging a 10-15 cm-long tunnel in the ground,
a female locust lays 95-158 eggs at once. Females can lay
eggs at least three times in their lifetime. When the larvae
have matured after 10-65 days, depending on the air
temperature, they emerge in a large group. Up to 1,000 egg
pods have been found in one square meter.
Locust swarms are large enough to cover several hundred
square kilometers. Their long underground
existence and sudden emergence in vast numbers all at the
same time may resemble the resurrection of
human beings on the Day of Judgment. (Allah
knows best.)
Today, locusts are being studied by special units, which
employ remote control imaging systems. Even NASA satellite
data are used to identify areas in Africa where
desert locust colonies have developed. Thanks to satellite
data, it is possible to carry out wide-ranging research on
land and in space over an 18 million square kilometer area.
As we have seen, the fact that the Quran made such a
comparison at a time when these technologies did not exist
is one of the proofs that it is the revelation of the
Omniscient Allah.