And your Lord revealed to the Bee: "Take unto yourselves homes in mountains, trees and readymade hives. then eat of all manner of fruit, and follow the easy paths of your Lord. "A drink of diverse colors issues from their bellies, wherein is healing for men. Surely in this is a sign for the people who reflect.

HONEY-BEE

As we know, this long chapter, composed of 128 verses, takes its name from the honeybee (nahl). The subject of bees and honey must, therefore, contain deep scientific insights. Many such insights are included in this chapter. However, the articulation of milk and honey in close succession in this chapter emphasizes the incomprehensible secrets of these two basic and wonderful foods of human beings. So, to start with the final sentence of the verse, "There is a sign in it for the people who reflect".

The scientific insights provided by bees and honey.

a) The honeycomb: The home of bees, a great work of art constructed of hexagonal prisms, is a masterpiece of architecture that can be built by divine inspiration. This geometrical choice represents the best utilization of architectural space, the enclosure of the greatest volume with the least material. Further, the resins constituting the basic construction material have been chosen with care to conform within human health.

b) The swarming of the bee is something extraordinary . By using special and variegated sound waves and their echoes, the bee both completes its deployment and finds its way back to the hive.

· The composition and the properties of honey.

a) The subtleties in the Composition of Honey

An organism requires sugar and starch as the basic foods for subsistence. It obtains these from various plants, and generally utilizes them as fuel to obtain energy. A small part is used in producing ribose, the basic substance of DNA. Among all foodstuffs, it is honey that contains ribose. When a body is in particular need of manufacturing new cells after illness, during growth and in blood fabrication, this ribose is very valuable for it. All soluble vitamins are present in honey. More importantly, it contains vitamins B13, B14 and Bt. Honey also contains other vital substances, such as phosphorous enzymes and folic acid.

b) Royal Jelly

There is a special growth and synthesis hormone in honey, which is considered to be one of the most enigmatic of biological substances, and is called "royal jelly" by the public. this hormone is prepared for the queen bee. Since this hormone is present in honey, the latter is an unsurpassed remedy for all chronic illnesses and for anemia. Anemic used to be fed spleen cooked rare as a cure. However, neither spleen nor liver is an effectual cure against anemia. On the contrary, the modern diet for anemia consists of uncooked green vegetables, honey and olive oil.

1) The bee collects many substances of therapeutic value from various fields and plants, and imparts these to honey. For these reason, the kinds of honey produced in different regions are beneficial against different illnesses. These substances have healing property especially where nervous and coronary ailments, chronic bronchitis and the stomach inflammation called gastritis are concerned.

2) This expression: “a drink of diverse hues" points to the differing chemical substances in honey. For example the growth hormone (royal jelly) is white, fructose (translucent), ribose (light yellow), and vitamin B2 (yellow), certain resins (orange). Again, the sacred verse uses the expression "issues from its belly" in order to underline the fact that the bee does not expel these materials as they are, but that it processes the chemicals, in its belly that it has gathered from flowers.

3) The healing effect of honey: The therapeutic effects of honey are so well-known that they are not the subject of medical controversy. These effects have multiple aspects, which will be summarized below.

· Effect on Cell Regeneration

Honey is beneficial in all chronic illnesses, and especially in chronic rheumatism, anemia, general weight deficiency, gastric and duodenal ulcers, epidermal illnesses of long standing, and the period following fevers which we call "convalescence".

· Effect of Honey collected from different regions

In regions where there are pine forests, the bee adds very powerful sedative substances to honey. In other regions, it provides substances that fortify the forest. The group B vitamins and the ribose and laevulose sugars that honey normally contains are the vital nutrients of the cardiac muscle. It is also known that the special nervous system of the heart derives extraordinary benefits especially from the group B vitamins and phosphorous. Further, the phosphorous, ribose, folic acid and group
B vitamins present in the normal composition of honey provide invaluable food for the brain.

(Excerpts from Dr. Haluk Nurbani's article "Verses from The Holy Quran and the facts of science " )