The Little Ants
(Shahzad Shameem, Abbottabad)
The Prophet (SAW) and his
companions once paused during a journey, and made a camp where they could rest.
The Prophet (SAW) went round the camp, talking to the men, and making sure that
everything was all right.
Then, not far away, he saw a fire. Someone had lit the fire to keep himself
warm. The Prophet (SAW) walked over towards the man who had lit fire, to talk
with him.
Suddenly, he saw that not far away, there was an ant hill. The ants could be
seen running about near the hill, working very hard, as ants do. Some of the
ants were further away from the ant hill than others, and the Prophet (SAW) saw
that they were getting very close to the fire the man had lit. If they came much
closer, the ants might be burned up or harmed in some way.
The Prophet (SAW) was very disturbed to see this. The ants were in danger. That
meant that God’s living creatures were in danger.
“Who has made fire here?” he asked.
The man who had made the fire looked up.
“I made the fire, O, Messenger of ALLAH!” he replied.
“It is cold and I needed to make myself warm.”
“Quick!” the Prophet (SAW) told him. “Put out the fire! put out the fire!”
The man obeyed at once. He took a blanket and beat the fires until its flames
died away.
Then, the man looked round and saw that there were ants near to where the fire
had been. He realized then that the Prophet (SAW) had been worried about the
ants. He did not want the fire to hurt them and in his great mercy had ordered
the fire to be put out.
Ever afterwards, the man always remembered to look round carefully before he
made a fire.
“There might be ants or other animals nearby,” he said to himself. ‘And ALLAH
forbids that any man should hurt them!”