Many animals migrate in flocks but it is rarely known that animal migrations represent an amazing planning, will and resolution. Skills far beyond animal intelligence are displayed in these preparations. Migratory animals never choose indirect paths to reach their destinations. They always proceed on a linear path and follow the shortest line. They have a perfect sense of navigation.
However it is Allah, the Merciful of the Most Merciful, Who grants this sense to them. They can flawlessly determine those elements human beings can only calculate by the help of special technical equipment, through research and calculations. These are surely the deeds of our Lord Who creates every living being with spectacular traits.
In terms of the weather conditions, animals make perfect timing for migration. This timing is the most appropriate one in terms of the conditions of both the journey and the destination. They make preparations before the voyage. For instance before the migration during which they will cover kilometers of distances they undergo a special diet and take in more fat than their bodies normally need in order to store the fat they will need during the journey.
During their flights they also regulate their energy in the best manner and make long-distanced flight movements that ensure energy saving. Furthermore it is observed that on the way to their destination they are not distracted by something they often find admirable. An arctic tern on its way from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska, for instance, will ignore a nice smelly herring offered from a bird-watcher’s boat in Monteray Bay. While local gulls will dive voraciously for such fish, the tern flies on.
Instinct is Allah’s inspiration to living beings
In an endeavor to explain this behavior, biologist Hugh Dingle says; “Animal migrants do not respond to sensory inputs from resources that would readily elicit responses in other circumstances. the arctic tern resists distraction because it is driven at that moment by an instinctive sense of something we humans find admirable: larger purpose.”
Especially Darwinists call such amazing animal behavior as “instinct” and do not pay the attention it deserves. By the term “instinct” Darwinists think that they give a name to the superior intelligence displayed in these behaviors and strive to give the impression that these behaviors come into being in the “natural” course of events. However the superior power we call “instinct” is a spectacular manifestation of wisdom that All-Mighty Allah inspires into a living being.
Charles Darwin, who first proposed the theory of evolution, realized that animal behavior and instinct represented major threats to his theory. In The Origin of Species, he openly admitted as much, several times:
“Many instincts are so wonderful that their development will probably appear to the reader a difficulty sufficient to overthrow my whole theory.” (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, Onur Publishing, Press Five, Ankara 1996, p.273)
Darwinists who propound that living beings evolved by chance, also have no explanation for instincts, as in the case of other animal behaviors. A living being which is the work of chance must, according to the Darwinist standpoint, consume whatever they find on their way, wage a struggle against other living beings in order to survive and never miss a favorable opportunity for this end. However migratory animals clearly possess will, self-sacrifice and a target. It is impossible for an animal to display discipline in an endeavor to complete the migratory program in a certain time, to possess the consciousness that this is obligatory for the continuation of its generation and to display self-sacrifice for it. Surely All Mighty Allah inspires them what they need to do. They are the glorious manifestations of Allah that submit themselves to our Creator. In one verse of the Qur’an Allah relates thus:
Do you not see that everyone in the heavens and earth glorifies Allah, as do the birds with their outspread wings? Each one knows its prayer and glorification. Allah knows what they do. (Surat an-Nur, 41)
Reaching some gravelly coastline in the Arctic, upon which other arctic terns have converged, finding an appropriate place to lay eggs and raise the youngsters and doing all these in the best time and under the most proper conditions reveal the existence of a superior wisdom. It is obvious that this wisdom cannot be attributed to the birds in question. This superior wisdom and consciousness that manifest themselves in these animals belong to Allah, the Lord of all the living beings. All these display our Lord’s perfect creation.
From the amazing order of giant galaxies to the minute organisms under the earth, everything reveals us the infinite subtleties of our Lord. All information pertaining to all living beings are always present in Allah’s Sight. Every living being on Earth leads its life with the traits Allah grants it and gets its provisions in the way our Lord destines for it. In Surat al-Mulk our Lord relates:
Have they not looked at the birds above them, with wings outspread and folded back? Nothing holds them up but the All-Merciful. He sees all things. (Surat al-Mulk, 19)
Reference: National Geographic Turkey/ November 2010
