Animals In The Glorious Quran

The Spider of the Cave

 

{/f you help him (Muhammad) not (it does not matter), for Allah did indeed help him when the disbelievers drove him out, the second of two, when they (Muhammad and Abu Bakr) were in the cave, and he (peace be upon him) said to his companion Abu Bakr (May Allah be pleased with him), 'Be not sad (or afraid), surely Allah is with us.' Then Allah sent down His Sakinah (calmness, tranquility, peace, etc.) upon him, and strengthened him with forces (angels) which you saw not, and made the word of those who disbelieved the lowermost, while it was the Word of Allah that became the uppermost, and Allah is All-Mighty, All- Wise.}

                                                                                                                (At- Tawbah: 40)

 

I am a spider who is higher in rank than other spiders. With all humility, if all the spiders in this world were put in one hand and I was put in the other I would outweigh them in superiority. I am not one to make false claims and show-off, I am simply stating facts. I do not think that I need to introduce myself to the reader, for I am sure you understand that I am the spider of the cave that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) hid in. I am the one, who was responsible for the Prophet's deliverance. I am the one, who Allah sent to protect him.

My web is very flimsy and light and the slightest breeze can blow it away. However, despite the weakness of my web, I managed to ward off the iron swords of the atheists that went out in pursuit of the Prophet, and moreover, I was able to defeat them! The outcome of the conflict between the spiders' weak silk and the iron of the swords was the defeat of iron. My house is considered a parable of weakness, "Verily, the frailest (weakest) of houses is the spider's house." I sat in my house protecting the noble house of Islam and guarding the Prophet of Allah, Muhammad ibn ' Abdullah (peace be upon him).

That was not all that happened to me. Something even more wonderful happened; I saw the Prophet. I know that after the Prophet's death, millions will visit his grave to cry and pray.

Moreover, each one of those who cry and pray will imagine the picture of the Messenger of Allah in his mind. But I saw him. I lived with him for three days. He lived as a guest under my cobweb for three whole days. Ah! My heart spins when I remember these days. They were magnificent. Before I saw him, I only loved spiders, food and life, but after I saw him I could only bring myself to love the truth. I changed after I saw him. Have you ever seen a spider cry before? I did. I, the spider, cried when he (peace be upon him) intended to leave the cave ...He left the cave and headed towards the city.

I said to him, "O Messenger of Allah I will miss you..." He (peace be upon him) did not hear me.

I said to him again, "O Messenger of Allah! Give me your hand to kiss or let me kiss the tail of your Coat." He did not hear me and left. As he was leaving the cave, he was compelled to destroy the house that I had built for him. I did not understand why he did that '" I sometimes say that he had to destroy my house in order to get out. My house was the cave's door, and the door had to be opened. So the Prophet extended his hand towards my home and gently pushed aside my silken web. I tried to get close to him and kiss his hand '" He did not notice that I wanted to kiss his hand for he pulled back his hand before I could bow down and kiss it.

He left ...

I bowed over the torn silk that had been my house and said, "The silk touched the hand of Allah's Messenger before I did." Then I cried. I continued to cry until my house dissolved in my tears and the cave went back to how it had been.

Let me tell my story from the very beginning. I ask the reader to forgive me for I am not myself.

I was a mountain spider and mountain spiders are extremely unlucky. We feed mainly on flies and insects. I was born in a deserted cave in mount Thawr. It is a mountain in Makkah, a small city that I have never seen in my life. Sometimes we hear the doves glorifying Allah from which we understand that they live under the protection of the Sacred House of Allah in Makkah. I tried to imagine how Makkah or the Sacred House of Allah would look but I could not, for I was imprisoned in the cave of Thawr. It is a desolate cave during the day and scary during the night. The cave is in the direction of Yemen. Nobody visits us. Even the beasts flee from the desolation of the mountains and prefer more habitable places.

In brief, I am the mistress of this mountain and its queen.

One day I was dangling by a silken string, which I had made from the cave's ceiling. It was a very hot day so I was swinging myself to and fro. Then I heard an unearthly voice ask, "Who of Allah's creatures inhabits this cave?"

Spiritual boundaries were broken and I realized that I was hearing the voice of an angel. I stopped swinging, bowed my whole body and prostrated in greeting.

I answered the angelic voice saying, "The spider of this cave Meme the daughter of Muma the granddaughter of Mamu is honored to speak with you."

The angelic voice said, "Come out to the door of the cave."

I moved the silken string to the door of the cave and came out.

The voice said, "After awhile, two of Allah's men will come to this cave ...Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his companion in this life and the Hereafter, Abu Bakr."

I asked, "And who is Muhammad (peace be upon him)?"

The voice replied, "He is the last of the Prophets of Allah on the earth, the mercy of Allah that He sent to the worlds. You will be the servant of him and his companion for three days in the cave."

I was filled with wonder and delight and my surprise increased with every passing minute. I said, "What brings him here to this desolate cave?"

The voice again replied, "He has fled his home for the sake of Allah's religion and the atheist tribes want his blood. How much time do you need in order to build your house over the door of the cave?"

As I was measuring angles, I said, "Four hours of constant work separated by two periods of rest."

The angelic voice ordered, "Work without resting ...Allah has charged you with the responsibility to safeguard His Prophet ...Divine Protection has put the seal on the fate of the final Message and the future of an entire civilization in your trust."

I deepened my prostration and whispered, "I hear and obey!"

The head angel left, and in an atmosphere of silence and desolation, I started working.

I examined my seven glands that make silk and they were full. I closely examined the entrance of the cave. The door was wide and I started measuring the angles and quickly calculated from which angle I should begin. "I will need six solid pillars of silk to produce from them twenty-six strings that will act as supplementary pillars. Also, I will need ninety-five strings in order to support the walls," I thought.

After that, I started to make the silk, which looks so flimsy, but which is stronger than anything solid as it turns into a fine string that is one thousandth of an inch in diameter. That is the diameter of the string within my web.

People do not know that spiders can measure angles and divide them, and that they can assess the durability of materials and the average of pressure. Moreover, they can calculate thousands of complicated architectural problems that people face in the building process. People do not know that spiders weave many kinds of silk to fulfill their all needs. We use our webs to trap a prey, as a dining table, a bed, a sheet, an alarm system, a getaway, a means of transportation and as a shield for protection. In other words, we spiders produce the most useful of material that can be used for many purposes.

The silk that a spider's gland secretes is undoubtedly like the silk produced by a caterpillar but there are some differences. It is these differences that make the spider's weave better, for it is finer, softer and more solid than any other silk. I was surprised to find the Messenger entering the cave with Abu Bakr. I stopped working for a moment and looked at his noble and majestic face that looks like a sheet of gold and felt a deep sense of reverence.

After that I said, "Welcome a Messenger of Allah."

I had hardly finished my greeting to him when I began weaving my house over the door of the cave. I descended vertically from the cave's opening to its floor while weaving my silk. Then I pulled it and fixed it to the ground with an acidic substance that my gland secretes. After that, I climbed up quickly to the entrance of the cave and started to go up and down leaning to the right and to the left while I was weaving my house. The weaving took three hours, six minutes and twenty seconds.

The atheists came to the entrance of the cave with their shiny swords standing face to face with my spidery web.

One of the atheists said, "If he had entered here then this spider's web would not be over the door."

I smiled a wide smile inside my house and Abu Bakr said to the Prophet (in a low voice), "If one of them were to look under his feet he would find us."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "Have no fear for Allah is with us."

The Messenger had hardly spoken these words when the place suddenly became full of angels, and it was filled with a voice saying, "If you help him (Muhammad) not (it does not matter), for Allah did indeed help him when the disbelievers drove him out, the second of two, when they (Muhammad and Abu Bakr) were in the cave, and he (peace be upon him.) said to his companion Abu Bakr (May Allah be pleased with him), "Be not sad (or afraid), surely Allah is with us." Then Allah sent down His Sakinah (calmness, tranquility, peace, etc.) upon him, and strengthened him with forces (angels) which you saw not, and made the word of those who disbelieved the lowermost, while it was the Word of Allah that became the uppermost, and Allah is All-Mighty, All- Wise."

After the voice had subsided, once again the cave became full of angels. I was surprised to find angels standing in front of my spidery house and standing behind it.

I asked the one closest to me, "What has happened?"

He replied, "We have come by an Order from Allah to protect His noble Prophet."

I was screaming and I said, "But I am commissioned to protect him and guard him! Why are you breaking my heart? No one can transgress against him! He is my guest and I am his servant."

I cried because I was so emotionally worked up and I was surprised to discover that I could cry. I turned towards the Prophet wanting to complain to him. But I found him preoccupied with prayer. He was praying and his companion, Abu Bakr, was praying behind him. When they prostrated, I prostrated with them.