The Fly in Bible and Quran

One of the expanded dogmas of mankind is that the Quran is quoted or borrowed from the Bible. This creed is established upon studies of many prejudiced intellectual scholars

In this series of articles (1-18), it is obvious that the Quran is quite different from the Bible. It is also very clear that the Quran preceded the sciences in many aspects.

In the present topic of the Fly, the smart reader will answer easily this fake dogmatic question: Is the Quran quoted from the Bible?

The Bible which says: 1) As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor and 2) The LORD will whistle for flies!

Or the Quran which says: 1) Humans are feeble and "Can never create a fly” and 2) Humans can never get back anything from a fly when it robs them of it

Before dealing with the topic of the Fly in Quran versus Bible versus sciences, it is essential to remember that the total words of the Bible are 788,280 while total words of the Quran are 77,473. It follows that, the Bible has the potential of more than 10 times the Quran to talk about the Different Fly word-wise.

The Fly is mentioned 10 times in the Bible and is mentioned once in the Quran.

The Fly in the Bible:

God punished Pharaoh and Egyptians with flies.

Exodus 8:21, 22, 24, 29 and 31:

21 "If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground where they are."

22 "But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land."

24 And the LORD did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh's palace and into the houses of his officials, and throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.

29 "Moses answered, "As soon as I leave you, I will pray to the LORD, and tomorrow the flies will leave Pharaoh and his officials and his people. Only be sure that Pharaoh does not act deceitfully again by not letting the people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD."

31 "and the LORD did what Moses asked: The flies left Pharaoh and his officials and his people; not a fly remained."

Punishment again:

Psalm 78:45

He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.

Psalm 105:31

He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and gnats throughout their country.

Why the "dead flies" ruin the perfume?

Why a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor?

Ecclesiastes 10:1

As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

All the inhabitants will die like flies

Isaiah 51:6

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.

The LORD will whistle for flies!

Isaiah 7:18

In that day the LORD will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria.

Now, let us leaving the LORD to whistle for the flies from the distant streams of Egypt and we will jump out to see what Allah says about the fly in the Quran.

The Fly in the Quran:

Man is feeble and "Cannot create a fly”

Surah 22:73

[73] O men! Here is a parable set forth! Listen to it! Those on whom, besides Allah, you call, can never Create even a fly, if they all met together for the purpose! And if the fly should snatch away anything from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly (they can not take it back from it);. Feeble are those who petition and those whom they petition! (how weak the invoker and the invoked)."

[74] No just estimate have they made of Allah: for Allah is He Who is strong and able to carry out His Will.

Scientists declare that it is impossible up till now to create a being as much as a fly.

The address is universal, including everyone anywhere in the world, and the declaration is as clear as a bell.

All false deities cannot create a fly even if they would join all their forces, use all their knowledge and technology and channel their possessions into a superlative effort. Yet a fly is only a small and wretched creature defying all the powers of these false gods.

Creating a fly is just as impossible as creating a horse or a donkey, because the fly also demonstrates the mysterious secret of life.

The Surah adds another dimension in describing our weakness: “if the fly should snatch away anything from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly (they can not take it back from it)!”

Those false deities, be they idols or humans, cannot get back anything from a fly when it robs them of it. Flies rob people of things that are precious indeed, and they remain unable to retrieve what is thus taken away. Flies are highlighted here because they are weak and despicable. At the same time, a fly can carry microbes of some very serious diseases, such as typhoid, dysentery, conjunctivitis etc... It can deprive a person of his eyes or other organs, or definitely deprive him of his life. A weak fly can rob a human being of what he can never retrieve.

Again, Allah talks to us in this verse about our inability to extract from the fly what it has taken away. If the fly should snatch some food no one would know how to recover it from it.

According to modern scientific discoveries, the fly might have discharged some excretions which would bring the food into change, which no one can convert it to its original status. One of the specific features of the flies is the way they digest food. Unlike many other living organisms, flies digest food not in their mouth, but outside of their body. They discharge a special liquid over the food by means of their trunk, which makes the food get in the suitable degree of consistency for absorption. Then, the fly absorbs the food with the absorbent pumps in its throat

To simplify, when a fly needs to eat, it would extend its mouth to the surface of the food creating a tube. If we examine the tube closely, we would see that the end that touches the surface of the food is wider, resembling the tube's end of a vacuum cleaner. After the fly had extends its mouth, it would excrete enzymes that allows it to break the food and convert it into liquid. This complicated process helps the fly to draw easily the ingested food into its body.

The Flies have the ability to break down food even outside of its body by the help of their active enzymes.

Notice carefully how the verse discusses this everlasting human's disability. The problem with extracting the food does not come from the limitations of our tools to get it back, but rather in what is being extracted.

Remember that the food that went into the body of the fly is not the same anymore. The food was broken down into molecules that makes it no longer what it was, and even if it is taken back it would not be the same. Therefore it cannot be attained again. Notice also that even if we were to take back the food at the first point when it was just entering the mouth of the fly, it would still not help, because the food was digested even before that. Therefore," they can not take it back from it" ever.

It follows that the Quran challenges the mankind by two scientific miracles:

1) mankind can never create a fly and 2) if the fly should snatch away anything from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly (they can never take it back from the fly)

Then, what is the conclusion?

Not only the fly is weak but man also is as weak as a fly.

It is said that:" The first step to know the truth is by knowing yourself"

At least, now you could realize how fake and forged the claim that the Noble Quran is quoted or borrowed from the Bible!