ﱨ ﱩ ﱪ ﱫ ﱬ ﱭ ﱮ ﱯ ﱰ ﱱ ﱲ ﱳ ﱴ ﱵ ﱶ ﱷ ﱸ ﱹ ﱺ ﱻ ﱼ ﱽ ﱾ ﱿ ﲀ ﲁ ﲂ ﲃ ﲄ ﲅ ﲆ ﲇ ﲈ ﲉ ﲊ ﲋ ﲌ ﲍ ﲎ ﲏ ﲐ ﲑ ﲒ ﲓ
Indeed, Allah is not timid to present an example - that of a mosquito or what is smaller than it. And those who have believed know that it is the truth from their Lord. But as for those who disbelieve, they say, "What did Allah intend by this as an example?" He misleads many thereby and guides many thereby. And He misleads not except the defiantly disobedient,
Tafsir
Verse range: 2:26
This verse was revealed to clarify that what the ignorant, the foolish, and the stubborn among the disbelievers found objectionable—their astonishment that trivial things could be used as parables—is not a matter for objection. Parables are employed to reveal meanings, lift the veil from a desired purpose, and bring the abstract closer to the observable.
If the subject being illustrated is grand, the parable is grand; if it is trivial, the parable is likewise. The greatness or triviality of the parable is not a choice, but a requirement dictated by the state of the subject being illustrated. The one who constructs the parable acts according to that necessity.
Do you not see that when the Truth is clear, bright, and manifest, it is likened to radiance and light? And when falsehood is the opposite, it is likened to darkness? Since the state of the idols that the disbelievers set up as rivals to Allah is the most trivial and base, the spider’s web was made a parable for their weakness and frailty. They were deemed less than a fly, and the mosquito—or something even smaller—was used as a parable. This was not rejected, nor was it considered strange, nor did the One who set the parable feel "ashamed" to liken them to a mosquito, for He is correct in His illustration and truthful in His speech. He drives the parable according to the nature of the subject, following the example that the situation demands.
This is to show that the believers, whose habit is fairness, justice, and viewing matters with the eye of reason, know when they hear such a parable that it is the Truth, which no doubt can approach, and the Right, around which no error can linger.
As for the disbelievers, whose ignorance has overcome their intellects and whose blindness has seized their insights, they do not perceive or open their minds. Even if they knew it was the Truth, their love for leadership and the bias of habit and custom would not allow them to be fair. When they hear it, they show stubbornness, arrogance, and judge it as false, meeting it with denial. This only increases the believers in guidance and the wicked in their transgression and misguidance.
It is astonishing how they deny this, while people have always used animals, birds, insects, and vermin as parables. These are the proverbs of the Arabs, circulating in their cities and deserts, in which they have likened things to the most trivial objects, saying: "More gathered than a grain," "Bolder than a fly," "More hearing than a tick," "More parched than a locust," "Weaker than a moth," and "More voracious than a moth." They also say regarding the mosquito: "Weaker than a mosquito," "More precious than the marrow of a mosquito," and "You have burdened me with the marrow of a mosquito."
Parables have also been struck in the Gospel using trivial things like tares, chaff, a mustard seed, a pebble, termites, worms, and wasps.
Using these things—and even things more trivial—as parables is something whose correctness and validity cannot be denied by anyone with the slightest bit of sense. But it is the habit of the defeated and the confounded—who have no evidence to hold onto, no sign to cling to, and no persuasion—to resort, out of extreme confusion and inability to devise a strategy, to rejecting the obvious, denying the straightforward, and relying on arrogance and sophistry when they find no other support.
It is reported from al-Hasan and Qatadah that when Allah mentioned the fly and the spider in His Book and struck a parable for the polytheists with them, the Jews laughed and said, "This does not resemble the speech of Allah," so Allah, the Exalted, revealed this verse.
On "Shame" (Haya'): Haya' is a change and a brokenness that overcomes a person out of fear of being blamed or disparaged. It is derived from hayat (life). It is said, "The man became hayy (ashamed)," just as one says nasiya (he forgot). When a horse is injured in its limbs, it is said to be hashiya or shaziya. The ashamed person is described as having broken strength and diminished life due to the brokenness and change that overcomes him.
If you ask: "How is it permissible to describe the Eternal (Allah) with this, when change, fear, and disparagement do not apply to Him?"—referring to the Hadith of Salman: "Indeed, Allah is Hayy (Shy/Generous), Karim (Generous). He is shy, when a servant raises his hands to Him, to turn them away empty until He places some good in them."
I say: This is by way of parable. It means He does not disappoint the servant; He does not turn his hands away empty of His bounty because of His generosity, similar to one who refrains from turning away a needy person out of haya'.
Likewise, the meaning of "Indeed, Allah is not ashamed" is: He does not refrain from striking a parable with a mosquito, as one who is ashamed to use it as a parable due to its triviality would refrain.
It is also possible that this expression occurred in the speech of the disbelievers, who said, "Is the Lord of Muhammad not ashamed to strike a parable with a fly and a spider?" Thus, it came as a response and a matching of the answer to the question. This is a subtle art of their speech.
Grammatical and Linguistic Notes:
