How Islam Instituted The Protection of Bees

Bees in the farm

Who would have believed that the seldom aggressive  insect called the ‘bee’ had other purposes asides generating honey to sweeten our teas and garnish our breads? 

Here are scientific facts showing why we should treat these neighbours of our more gently and kindly.

Benefits of Bees

• Three out of four crops across the globe that produce fruits or seeds which humans use for food depend, at least in part, on bees and other animal/insect pollinators.
• Nearly 90% of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend, entirely, or at least in part, on animal pollination, along with more than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land. Pollinators contribute immensely to food security and conservation of biodiversity. 
• Bees are reported to have double the coffee harvest in Guatemala.

In a nutshell, we all depend on the survival of bees.

Problems

Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, hummingbirds and bats are increasingly under threat from man’s activities.

To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators (especially bees), the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the United Nations designated 20th May every year as World Bee Day. The theme for 2020 is 'Save the Bees'.

The goal is to strengthen measures aimed at protecting bees and other pollinators, which would significantly contribute to solving problems related to the global food supply and eliminate hunger in developing countries.

Present species extinction rates are 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal due to human activities. Close to 35 percent of invertebrate pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, and about 17 percent of vertebrate pollinators, such as bats, face global extinction.

Dangers

• Intensive farming practices, land-use change, mono-cropping, pesticides and higher temperatures associated with climate change all pose problems for bee populations and, by extension, the quality of food we grow.
• If this trend carries on, nutritious crops, such as nuts, fruits, and many vegetable crops will be substituted increasingly by staple crops like corn, rice and potatoes, ultimately resulting in a diet imbalanced.

Islam to the rescue

Whenever Muhammad (SAW) was dispatching an army, his instructions were thus: “I advise you ten things. Do not kill women or children or an aged, infirm person. Do not cut down fruit-bearing trees. Do not destroy an inhabited place. Do not slaughter sheep or camels except for food. Do not burn bees and do not scatter them. Do not steal from the booty, and do not be cowardly.”

Muhammad (SAW) ordered, “Do not burn bees and do not scatter them”. 

There were no corporate scientific research organizations in existence when the great Prophet (SAW) drummed this warning into the ears of the Muslim soldiers. Some of them might have felt, ‘what is so special about bees?’

Well, like we have been taught, Muhammad (SAW) spoke not from his own mind; he was divinely inspired.

Muhammad (SAW) is known to have made several statements inculcating in the hearts of the Muslims that even animals have rights that must not be trampled on.

What would have been the position of the world’s inhabitants today if we had paid keen attention to this golden instruction from the day it was first made?

Simple answer, the extinction of a major pollinator like the bee will not drive chills down our spines.

Like we sometimes say, if you do not accept Muhammad (SAW) as Messenger of your Creator, at least accept that he was the wisest man to have stepped foot on the surface of the Earth.