The Woodpecker and Irfan

That Sunday, Irfan went for a walk in the woods with his father. While he was walking, he was thinking about how beautiful the trees and all of nature were. His father then bumped into a friend, and as the two grown-ups were chatting Irfan heard a sound:

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap...

The sound was coming from a tree. Irfan walked up to the bird that was making it and asked:

"Why are you hitting the tree with your beak like that?"

The bird stopped what it was doing, and turned to look at Irfan. "I am a woodpecker, " it answered. "We make holes in trees and build our nests in them. Sometimes we store our food in these tree holes. This is the first hole I've ever made. I will make hundreds more like it though." Irfan looked closer at the hole. "Fine, but how do you store food in such a small place?" he wondered.

"Woodpeckers mostly eat acorns, and acorns are quite small," the woodpecker explained. "Inside each hole I make I'll put one acorn. That way I'll be able to store enough food for myself."

Irfan was puzzled: "But instead of struggling with lots of small holes," he said, "you could make one big one and store all your food there."

The woodpecker smiled: "If I did that, other birds would come and find my food store and steal my acorns. But the holes I make are of different sizes. When I put the acorns I find into the holes, I store them according to their size. The size of the acorn exactly matches the hole I put it into. That way the acorn fits tightly into the hole. Because Allah created my beak so that I can take the acorns back out of the holes easily, I can take them from the trees without any problem. But other birds can't do that, so my food is safe. Of course, I don't have the brains to think all that out. I'm only a woodpecker. Allah makes me do these things. It is Allah Who taught me how to hide my food and Who created my beak in the right way for me to do it. Really, it isn't just me—all living creatures are able to do the things they do because that is what Allah taught them."

Irfan agreed: "You're right. Thank you for telling me all that... You reminded me the great power of Allah."

Irfan said goodbye to his little friend and went back to his father. He was very happy because wherever he looked he could see another of Allah's miracles.