Sūrah An-Naḥl The Bee
النحل
128 verses, Makkī (with some Madanī additions). Called the Surah of Blessings (Sūrat al-Niʿam) it enumerates divine gifts: cattle, agriculture, ships, rivers, night and day, stars for navigation, the bee and its honey. Ibn Kathīr uses this surah to explain the prohibition of what was made forbidden only by custom, and the obligation of gratitude.
Surah Overview
Key Themes from Ibn Kathīr
The bee as a divine miracle (16:68–69): "Your Lord inspired the bee take for yourself among the mountains houses, and among the trees and in what they construct. Then eat from all the fruits and follow the ways of your Lord laid down for you." From its belly comes a drink of varying colours a healing for people. Ibn Kathīr: the bee's instinctive engineering, its honey production, and its navigational memory are divine inspirations signs for those who reflect.
The prohibition of making lawful or unlawful without authority (16:116): "And do not say about what your tongues assert of untruth, 'This is lawful and this is forbidden,' to invent falsehood about Allah. Indeed, those who invent falsehood about Allah will not succeed." This directly condemns the Arab practice of customary taboos.
- The comprehensive ethics verse (16:90): Ibn Kathīr records that ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn ؓ accepted Islam upon hearing this verse from the Prophet ﷺ it gathered every virtue and prohibited every vice in one sentence. It is recited as the closing of every Friday sermon.
- The soul taken in sleep (16:70): "Allah created you; then He will take you in death. And among you is he who is reversed to the most decrepit old age." The cycle of life from creation to death to decay. Ibn Kathīr: reminder that health and youth are temporary trust.
- Do not break oaths after confirming them (16:91–92): The parable of the woman who unravelled her spin after it was strong like breaking firm agreements after making them. Ibn Kathīr applies this to both individual promises and international treaties.
- Ibrāhīm as a model (16:120–123): He was a nation (ummah) in himself devout to Allah, a Ḥanīf, not a polytheist. Grateful for His blessings chosen, guided, given the straight path. "Follow the millah of Ibrāhīm, who was not of the polytheists."
- The Qurʾān as an explanation of all things (16:89): "And We have sent down to you the Book as clarification for all things and as guidance and mercy and good tidings for the Muslims." Ibn Kathīr: not that the Qurʾān mentions every fact of science but that it clarifies all matters of religion needed for salvation.