A Prophet and the Ant Hill

A Prophet and the Ant Hill

‫ﺑﺴﻢ اﻟﻠﻪ اﻟﺮﺣﻤﻦ اﻟﺮﺣﻴﻢ‬

Allah doesn’t love those who go beyond the limits even against
trees, and animals. Islam prohibited this. This is the reason
Allah has made spreading corruption on Earth a sin. Included
in this is destroying offspring and livestock. Allah will ask
us on the Day of Judgement about a bird that we killed just
for sport.

There are prophet’s that Allah mentioned in the Quran by name

and some whose names He didn’t mention and their stories are
in the Sunnah. Although the Prophets have a high status with
Allah this doesn’t mean that at times they might have fallen
short in certain actions. Therefore Allah corrected them

Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (‫ )ﷺ‬as saying:

A prophet from amongst the prophets of Allah encamped under a

tree, and an ant bit him, and then he commanded his belongings
to be removed from underneath that tree. He then commanded it
to be burnt and it was. Following this Allah revealed to
him):” Why one ant (which had bitten you) was not killed?”[1]

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah’s Messenger (‫ )ﷺ‬said, “Once day a prophet amongst the
prophets was taking a rest underneath a tree, an ant bit him.
He, therefore, ordered that his luggage be taken away from
underneath that tree and then ordered that the dwelling place
of the ants should be set on fire. Allah sent him a
revelation:– “Wouldn’t it have been sufficient to burn a
single ant? (that bit you):[2]

Meaning of this Hadith:

Prophet Muhammad (‫ )ﷺ‬informed us about a prophet who sat under

a tree as he was probably relaxing and taking a break from his
journey ,so he sat under the tree to catch some shade away
from the hot sun. Next to the tree was an ant hill that was
bothered by this prophet’s movement . The ants then attacked
him in defense of his colony.
All Prophet’s(‫ )ﷺ‬are human, so they get angry like all people
do and at times react in a way that they later regret. His
anger lead him to be quite mad at the ant , thus he decided to
punish the ant’s entire community. He requested his
travelling bags to be removed from under the tree. After this
he light a fire and torched the anthill and all the ant around
it.

Collective punishment isn’t among the acts of justice. Only

one ant bit him, so if this prophet was going to get revenge
then it would have be correct for him to only go after the ant
that attacked him.

Ants are a community like us. They praise and glorify Allah
like all other animals. It’s prohibited for the son of Adam to
transgress against them, except if they harm us. Then in this
case, we can only remove their harm without excessive
transgression or oppression. This is the reason why Allah
(‫ـــــﺎﻟﻰ‬
‫ )ﺗﻌـ‬criticized that prophet for his actions. He went
beyond the bounds and punished the innocent for actions they
didn’t do. That prophet killed an entire community that
praised Allah. Following this Allah sent revelation to him
saying ” Wouldn’t it have been sufficient to burn a single
ant? (that bit you)”

Islam teaches us that killing ants is not allowed. The same

way Islam takes safeguarding and preserving the life of man it
has the same regard for the life of animals and their
offspring.

Benefits for the Subject

 It’s not allowed to kill ants.

Killing animal isn’t allowed for this which have harmful

fluid or venom. There is an authentic hadith that
forbade the killing of ants,bees, frogs and hoopoes.

Islamic legislation doesn’t allow killing one with fire.

However, it might be allowed for the previous nations,
so that is why that prophet used the fire.

Ants praise and glorify Allah. Allah said: ” The seven

heavens and the earth and all that is therein, glorify
Him and there is not a thing but glorifies His Praise.
But you understand not their glorification.” (17:44)

Ants are a community like we are. Allah has mentioned in

the Quran that animals and birds are a nation just like
we are. He said : |” There is not a moving (living)
creature on earth, nor a bird that flies with its two
wings, but are communities like you.” (6:38)

For more inspiring stories visit :

https://www.abuaaliyah.com/category/inspiring-stories/

Taken from Authentic stories of the Prophets by Dr. Umar Al-

Ashqar/ pg 165-168

Translated by Abu Aaliyah Abdullah ibn Dwight Battle

Why not buy me a cup of coffee

[1] Muslim 2241

[2] Al-Bukhari 3319