Amir and the Chameleon

On a school trip one day, Amir left his friends and began to wander about amongst the trees. As he was leaning against a tree and resting, a voice came from a log on the ground.

"Hello Amir," said the voice, "Are you tired out?"

Amir couldn't believe his ears. When he looked carefully at the log, he noticed a creature that was so close to it in color that he had difficulty in telling which was which.

"Who are you?" he asked. "I had real trouble spotting you—your color and the color of the log you're sitting on are exactly the same!"

"I'm a chameleon," said the creature, which rather resembled a lizard. "I change my color according to my surroundings to protect myself from danger."

"How do you manage such a wonderful thing?" asked Amir, intrigued.

"Let me explain," said his new friend. "I have special coloring substance called 'chromatophore' in my skin. This allows me to change my color to match my surroundings. This color change comes about through the distribution and collection of various substances and pigments in my nervous system. So even though I move very slowly, I can live unnoticed and safely wherever I may be. Of course, this ability was given to me by our Almighty Lord, Who provides us with everything we need."

Amir was not sure he quite understood, "Could you please tell me a bit more about how you change color?"

The chameleon took a deep breath and nodded: "When I'm sitting on a leafy branch in daylight I turn green with black and brown markings, like the shadows on the branches around me. When it's dark I'm completely black. I can carry out all these color changes within 15 minutes. When I'm angry though, I develop dark orange spots and dark red markings as a warning to other animals."

"That is really unbelievable!" cried Amir. "I wonder what else is special about you?"

His friend smiled happily. "My eyes move independently of one another. I can look backwards and downwards. Of course, I wouldn't have had any of these characteristics if Allah had not wanted me to. Allah created me and gave me everything I need to survive."

Amir looked a bit closer. "It's quite hard to make your eyes out."

"So that my eyes don't attract the attention of enemies, Allah covered them completely with scales so they look like the rest of my head. As you can see, Allah created me in the best possible way to deal with whatever might happen to me."

"From now on," said Amir, "I'll look more carefully at things around me. I won't forget to pray to our great and powerful Lord when I see the clear proofs of His existence in nature. Thank you."

"Bye bye, Amir!" said the chameleon as it disappeared back into its surroundings once more.