The Bees Destroy All Doubt

Surah Al-Nahl (The Chapter of the Bees) is Chapter 16 of the Quran and has a total of 128
verses. The first surprise is that science has now discovered and firmly established that male bees
(called drones) have a total of 16 chromosomes, while female workers and queen bees have 16
pairs of chromosomes. Furthermore, the queen bee emerges as a bee from the egg in 16 days!
This is totally shocking, because no one even claims that anyone knew how many DNA
chromosomes bees had over 1,400 years ago. But is this only by chance? Can we really
demonstrate a mathematical connection between the Chapter of the Bees and the number 16, and
even more specifically to bees? The answer is an overwhelming yes.

Interestingly, the number of verses in this chapter (128) is a multiple of 16, as 16 X 8 = 128! Put
another way, eight is the total number of verses in the chapter that are multiples of 16, something
I have not ever seen anyone highlight before. But more about these verses later. Keeping in mind
that the queen bee has a total of 32 chromosomes (16 X 2, since there are 16 pairs), we look at
the total number of verses in this chapter which contain the name of Allah two times and find
that they are exactly 16 in number!

After this, we find that the number of verses in this chapter that contain the name of Allah is 64,
while the number of verses that do not contain the name of Allah is also 64. In both cases, 64 is
also a multiple of 16, as 16 X 4 = 64! Taken as a whole, these figures provide strong evidence
that multiples of 16 may be an important thread to follow, so keep this in mind for later on.

The shortest verse in the Chapter of the Bees is Verse 16! Looking even closer at this verse, we
find that out of the entire Arabic Hija’i alphabet, there are exactly 16 letters that are not used in
this verse!

Then when we look at the last verse of Chapter 16 (Verse 128, which is also a multiple of 16),
we see that it contains exactly 32 letters, which is equal to 16 + 16, as well as to the queen bee’s
16 pairs of chromosomes, which in total are 32 chromosomes! Furthermore, this verse contains
eight words, and multiplying the total number of letters in the verse (i.e., 32) by the total number
of words gives us 256, or 128 + 128! Not only is 128 the number of this specific verse, but it is
also the total number of verses in this chapter!

So far, it has become evident that the number 16 is strongly highlighted in the Chapter of the
Bees (which is itself the 16th chapter), but we have still not looked at the chapter’s key verse and
the word “bees” within it, which the chapter is named after.

In the entire Quran, only one verse (16:68) mentions the Arabic word for “the bees.” Looking
closer at this verse, it is shocking to find that from the start of the verse, up to and including the
word for “the bees,” it contains exactly 16 letters! As already highlighted, male bees have
exactly 16 chromosomes, while females have 16 pairs of chromosomes. This includes the queen
bee, who takes 16 days to emerge from an egg as a bee!
It gets even more shocking when we realize that out of all the letters in the Arabic alphabet, only
16 are used to make up this verse! In other words, Allah created male bees with 16 chromosomes
and female bees with 16 pairs ofchromosomes, just as He made the only verse in the Quran to
mention the word for “the bees” with 16 letters of the alphabet!

)68( ‫وأوحى ربك إلى التخل أي اخذي من الجبال وئا ومن الشجر وما يعرشون‬

16 letters!

Total number of letters from alphabet used in this verse = 161

‫واح ي رب ك ل ن ت خ ذ م ج ش ع‬

Figure 33: Quran 16:58 and the position of the Arabic word for "the bees" in the chapter

If this is not dramatic enough, think about this totally breathtaking discovery. Verse 68
(mentioned above) contains13 words, and 68 X 13 = 884, but is there any significance to the
number 884? It is nothing short of stunning to find that, counting from the start of the chapter,
the Arabic word for “the bees” is exactly Word Number 884! I am compelled to repeat this! In
the entire Quran, the only mention of the Arabic word for “the bees” appears in this verse as
Word Number 884 in the Chapter of the Bees—and the number of the verse in which it appears
(68), multiplied by the number of words in the verse (13), equals the exact order of this word in
the chapter! This is stunningly miraculous and should eraseall doubts for reasonable people—yet
what is even more shocking and completely destroys all possible doubt is still to come. But for
now, just keep this number in mind: 884.

13 words in the "Verse of the Bees" in the Chapter of the Bees (Quran 16:68)

)68( ‫وأوحى ربك إلى األخل أن اخذي من الجبال بيوتا ومن الشجر وما يغرشون‬

Verse Number (68) X Total Verse Words (13) = 884

"The Bees" (From the start of the chapter, this is Word Number 884!!)

Figure 34: The Arabic word for "the bees" in the "Verse of the Bees" in the Chapter of the Bees (Quran
16:68)
We have looked at the shortest verse in the Chapter of the Bees, which is Verse 16, but what
about the longest verse? It is Verse 92. Amazingly, the longest verse in the Chapter of the Bees
has a total of 32 words! As already stated, 32 is the total number of chromosomes found in
female bees, including the queen bee, with their 16 pairs of chromosomes—and of course, 32 =
16 + 16. So, the shortest verse in this chapter is Verse 16, while the longest verse has 32 words—
just like male bees have 16 chromosomes and female bees have 32 chromosomes. In other
words, these verse configurations mirror both the least number of chromosomes a living bee can
have (which is 16), as well asthe greatest number possible (which is 32).

114

Figure 35: Chart showing word and letter counts for Chapter 16 of the Quran

up to Verse 68. Numbers taken from the Complete Quran Word and Letter

Chart created by Abdulrazzaq Abawi in collaboration with the Noon Center

for Quran Research and Studies. I have also double-checked and “physically”

counted every word and letter using their approach, named in this work as

Approach B.

115

Before leaving this verse, we take another look and find that

while both approaches count 32 words, Approach A (which

is this book’s default approach unless otherwise indicated)

counts a total of 131 letters for this verse—but is there any

significance to this number?

More than once in this book, I have mentioned that the order

of prime numbers is an important key in Quran mathematics.

The amazing surprise here is that 131 is a prime number, and

its order amongst prime numbers is 32! Once again, the

harmony of the mathematical code is truly amazing.

Mathematicians are still struggling to understand prime

numbers, yet again and again, they are dominantly seen in the
Quran’s numerical code.

Another amazing thing is that when we count using

Approach B, the total number of letters in this verse is 128,

which is the total number of verses in Chapter 16! As

indicated in the “Methodologies” section of this book, both

approaches are legitimate. It is as though Allah is telling us

that whichever legitimate method is used, we will find what

can overwhelmingly make evident that the miraculous nature

of the Quran is beyond human capacity, even mathematically.

We have examined the shortest and longest verses of Chapter

16, so now let’s take a look at the chapter’s first and last

verses to contain exactly 16 words, which scholars have

identified as Verses 11 and 103. Added together, the sum of

these verse numbers equals 114, which is yet again the total

number of chapters in the Quran and a main key in Quran

mathematics. Their numerical connection is thus confirmed

through this key.