Honey Bees eating fruits

[baandaar]

Asalam Alaikum brother Joseph Islam,
I hope all is well.
Before I ask my question, please allow me to thank you sincerely for a wonderful job in explaining glorious Quran to regular people like me. I have learned so much from Quransmessage.com. May Allah SWT rewards your efforts.
I was reading Quran to my kids and I came across
016:068-69
"And your Lord inspired the bee saying: Make hives in the mountains and in the trees and in what they build. Then eat of all the fruits and follow the ways of your Lord submissively. There comes from within their bellies a beverage of many colours, in which there is healing for mankind most surely there is a sign in this for a people who reflect"
 
My kids said they have always sees the honey bees outside who sit on flowers and eat the nectar and never seen the honey bees eating from any fruits and they asked how come the Quran commands the bees to eat from all fruits and does not mention nectar?
I searched all the translation of Qurans in English, Urdu, Persian and Pashtu and all say fruits and I still have not found a convincing respond to my their questions.
I would appreciate if you can provide an answer to their question.
Thank you

[ahmad]

Walaykum al Salam Baandaar,

Its very good that you are teaching your kids the Quran at a young age, May God bless them.
Regarding your Question, I did a google search and it seems that bees actually do eat fruits.

Take a look here: https://honeybeesuite.com/do-honey-bees-eat-fruit/
And here is a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ryx9TL3C4E

Regards,
Ahmad.

[baandaar]

Salam Alum Ahmad,

Thank you for the quick reply. Yes I had searched go ogle and found out that Honey Bees do eat fruits and did show my kids the images and articles. They have accepted that Honey Bees do eat fruits but they are still not convinced of why Qumran does not mentioned nectar or pollen.
Their argument as follow:
Honey Bees hibernate over the winter and are awaken in spring when the temperature warms up. Honey Bees are very active collecting nectar and pollen when flowers boom  and trees blossom in spring and you see a swarm of bees buzzing on flowers and blossom. There are no fruits in the spring for the bees to eat.
spring is the time the bees makes most of the honey.
The question arises from Sarah An-Nahl verse 69, is the word "الثمرات" translates as fruits or does it have other meanings in classical Arabic language?
Thank you brother.

[Joseph Islam]

Wa alaikum assalam Baandaar,

Please kindly see article below:

BEES AND FRUITS
http://quransmessage.com/articles/bees-fruits%20FM3.htm

Regards,
Joseph


Facebook Link to relevant post: https://www.facebook.com/joseph.a.islam/posts/1465919100211879

[Athman]

As salaamu 'alaikum,

Dear all,

I fully do share Br. Joseph’s exposition in the article shared as published today in response to ‘baandaar’s’ question. In resonance, I am happy to share an opinion below in support of his view especially with regards point (5) of the ‘FINAL THOUGHTS’ in the article which appears to be at the crux of the matter in question as quoted below:

“The question arises from Sarah An-Nahl verse 69, is the word "الثمرات" translates as fruits or does it have other meanings in classical Arabic language?”

As shared in the article, ‘thamarah’ admits some shades of meaning with an underlying connotation of wholesome ‘produce’ mostly from the general ‘flora’ for purposes of goodly consumption. With a primary signification to ‘increase, get to produce, fructify,’ the term is found to be employed referring to even trees, shrubs and also, in the form ‘at-thaamiru’ specifically to a typical flower, of the ‘hummadhw’ (rose-coloured sorrel) which is red. See the reference [1] as cited in the article.

In verse 41:47, some allusion to typical budding is hinted when the term ‘thamarati’ is used with the term ‘akmamiha’ which refers to ‘its sheath.’ This would denote a general fruit or crop. In 7:130, the Qur’an uses ‘at-thamarati’ to refer to the general ‘produce’ that the People of Firawn were made short of. Arguably, this was not only a reference to fruits. One may also note that most translators have rendered the term ‘thamarati’ to ‘crops’ in this case.

On the other hand, the commonly used term to refer to ‘fruits’ in specific within the Qur’an and general parlance is ‘fakihah’ (plural: fawakih). To cite an example, the Qur’an distinguishes between ‘fruits’ (fakihatan) and ‘vegetables’ (abba) in 80:31 as among consumptive enjoyment (80:27-32). Such a distinction can also be noted in verses 55:11-12 where ‘fruits’ (fakihatun) and ‘grains’ (al-habbu) are mentioned.

Hopefully that also helps to support such an understanding as shared above.

Regards,
Athman.

REFERENCE:
[1]. LANE. E.W, Edward Lanes Lexicon, Williams and Norgate 1863; Librairie du Liban Beirut-Lebanon 1968, Volume 1, Page 353

[Joseph Islam]

Dear brother Athman,

As-salamu alaykum

JazakAllah Khair for your important elucidation with which I wholly concur.

Having read your response, I have felt that the article should now include an excerpt of the rose-coloured sorrel and the Lubia reference, rather than just the reference to the page of the lexicon, particularly as it is relevant to the crux of the article.

Therefore, thank you very much for your post which has proved very useful and I am sure, to others too.

Regards,
Joseph
 

[Reader Comments]

 Comments received via Joseph Islam's Facebook:


Salam Joseph,

Thanks for keeping up writing excellent posts. I don't comment on your posts since I am from a sunni Muslim country who doesn’t like Quranists. Regarding your posts about honey, I don't understand Arabic (as you do), but this verse is scientifically true ( I am a biologists).

Firstly, Honey bees eat ripe fruits such as plums, peaches, grapes, apples, figs and pears, when there is Nectar deficiency.

Secondly, Nectar collected from flowers is swallowed and in the honey stomach enzymes (invertase) are induced which convert the sugars (sucrose) into levulose and dextrose sugars. Thus honey is produced in a process, inside bees's belly.

Thirdly, the next part of the verse talks about memory loss due to old age. And honey has been scientifically proven to be successful treating Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's etc age related memory loss disease.

Regarding different colours. Honey do have different colours.



Though bee is a very small creature, it is very important. I don't think any other animal/insect is as important  as bee. If bees disappear, 70% types of crops will disappear, eventually we will.

Another random coincidence is bees have 16 set of chromosomes and Nahl is the 16th Chapter.

[Athman]

Dear Br. Joseph,

Wa 'alaikumus salaam,

It is my pleasure to read that you found my comments somehow relevant and helpful. And yes, I think it would be a good idea to include in the article as an additional excerpt the part that mentions the 'hummadhw' (rose-coloured sorrel) and the 'luubiya' (dolichos lubia of Forskål) which is relevant to the main focus of the article.

Thanks for the appreciation too.

Regards,
Athman.

[Duster]

What an awesome and informative thread !!

[baandaar]

Thank you Brother Joseph and Athman for a very informative information on this subject.