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					                         About the Author
known as the author of important works disclosing the imposture of evolu-
tionists, their invalid claims, and the dark liaisons between Darwinism and
such bloody ideologies as fascism and communism.
      Harun Yahya's works, translated into 57 different languages, constitute a
(John), in memory of the two esteemed prophets who fought against their peo-
ples' lack of faith. The Prophet's (may God bless him and grant him peace)
seal on his books' covers is symbolic and is linked to their contents. It repre-
sents the Qur'an (the Final Scripture) and Prophet Muhammad (may God
grant him peace]), the author makes it his purpose to disprove each funda-
mental tenet of irreligious ideologies and to have the "last word," so as to com-
pletely silence the objections raised against religion. He uses the seal of the
final Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace), who attained ulti-
mate wisdom and moral perfection, as a sign of his intention to offer the last
                            message, encourage readers to consider basic faith-
                              related issues such as God's existence and unity
                                and the Hereafter; and to expose irreligious sys-
                                 tems' feeble foundations and perverted ideolo-
                                      Harun Yahya enjoys a wide readership in
                              many countries, from India to America, England
                            to Indonesia, Poland to Bosnia, Spain to Brazil,
                           Malaysia to Italy, France to Bulgaria and Russia.
                              Some of his books are available in English,
                                     French, German, Spanish, Italian,
Indonesian, Bengali, Danish and Swedish.
       Greatly appreciated all around the world, these works have been instru-
mental in many people recovering faith in God and gaining deeper insights into
easy to understand, directly affect anyone who reads them. Those who seri-
ously consider these books, can no longer advocate atheism or any other per-
verted ideology or materialistic philosophy, since these books are characterized
ideologies from their very foundations. All contemporary movements of denial
No material gain is sought in the publication of these works.
hearts and guide them to become more devoted servants of God, render an in-
valuable service.
doubts in people's hearts, as also verified from previous experience. It is impos-
sible for books devised to emphasize the author's literary power rather than the
overcome disbelief and to disseminate the Qur'an's moral values. The success
       One point should be kept in mind: The main reason for the continuing cru-
elty, conflict, and other ordeals endured by the vast majority of people is the
defeat of disbelief and by conveying the wonders of creation and Qur'anic
                         To the Reader
doubt. It is therefore an imperative service, a very important duty to show every-
one that this theory is a deception. Since some readers may find the chance to
read only one of our books, we think it is appropriate to devote a chapter to sum-
marize this subject.
invite readers to learn God's words and to live by them. All the subjects con-
cerning God's verses are explained so as to leave no doubt or room for questions
in the reader's mind. The books' sincere, plain, and fluent style ensures that
those who rigorously reject spirituality are influenced by the facts these books
document and cannot refute the truthfulness of their contents.
in a group. Readers eager to profit from the books will find discussion very use-
ful, letting them relate their reflections and experiences to one another.
books are all extremely convincing. For this reason, to communicate true reli-
gion to others, one of the most effective methods is encouraging them to read
these books.
pleasure to read.
respect and reverence due to sacred subjects, nor hopeless, pessimistic argu-
ments that create doubts in the mind and deviations in the heart.

  Your Lord revealed to the bees: “Build dwellings
   in the mountains and the trees, and also in the
  structures which men erect. Then eat from every
   kind of fruit and travel the paths of your Lord,
   which have been made easy for you to follow.”
  From inside them comes a drink of varying colors,
      containing healing for humanity. There is
    certainly a sign in that for people who reflect.
                (Surat an-Nahl: 68-69)

          HARUN YAHYA
                     March 2007
                        Translated by Carl Rossini
                         Edited by Tam Mossman

                              Published by
                         GLOBAL PUBLISHING
                        Phone: (+90 212) 320 86 00

               Printed and bound by Secil Ofset in Istanbul
                        Phone: (+90 212) 629 06 15

               Bookwork, Norwich, UK. 1420 CE/1999 AH.

                            Abbreviation used:
                               the prophets)

                   w w w. h a r u n y a h y a . n e t

  Introduction: The Life of Honeybees 8
          Life in the Beehive 12
  Bees’ Methods of Communication 84
 Division of the Colony: Swarming 112
    The Bee’s Flawless Anatomy 126
 The Comb: A Marvel of Engineering 132
       The Miracle of Honey 160
  Conclusion: The Fact of Creation 168
Appendix: The Deception of Evolution 172
And they have other uses for them, and drinks.

          ivil wars, slaughter, problems within families, people who kill
          without a qualm, children living on the streets, people freezing
youth gangs, civic and political corruption . . .
   When one thinks about these social problems, which have become part
and parcel of today’s daily life, the same imperfection can be seen at the
root of them all. This same common imperfection also underlies such cor-
rupt moral values as injustice, fraud, hypocrisy and ruthlessness that
cause these problems to emerge.
   This grave imperfection is that people fail to think—and thus, fail to
rights and wrongs. They regard living the course of their daily lives as suf-
ficient, never sparing a thought for vital issues such as the reason for their
presence in this world.
therefore unaware that all these things—their own bodies, the equilibrium
in the heavens, in short, everything and anything—are created by God. They
creation and the fact that they owe responsibilities to God. The fact is, how-
ever, that a great many verses in the Qur’an emphasize the importance of
thinking and the fact that only thoughtful people will heed advice.
   Verses refer to people who think and thus achieve awareness of the
might of God:

                                 Adnan Oktar
10                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

     punishment of the Fire.” (Surah Al ‘Imran: 190-191)
     The aim of this book is to overcome this mental idleness by presenting
yet another of God’s miracles of creation. In addition, the honeybee is one
of the creatures to which the Qur’an draws our attention. In Surat an-Nahl,
God reveals that bees act in the light of His inspiration:
     drink of varying colors, containing healing for humanity. There is
     These verses emphasize bees’ making their own homes, taking nour-
ishment from every kind of flower and producing honey. As you’ll see in
queen has the extremely important function of ensuring the hive’s contin-
uation. The sole function of the males in the hive is to fertilize their queen.
          In addition to examining these features of bees, this book also con-
           siders many other matters, such as how tens of thousands of bees
                                  they follow directions, and how they pro-
                                         duce honey. With verses from the
                                           Qur’an, we shall once again be
                                            seeing that there is no arbitrary
                                            and random “struggle for sur-
                                           vival” either in nature or in the
                                        lives of bees, contrary to what the
                                                theory of evolution would
                                                     have us believe.
   Intelligent Design, in other words Creation
   In order to create, God has no need to design
planning and creation take place at the same instant.
say, "Be!"
   As we are told in the verses of the Qur’an:
   is. (Surah Ya Sin: 82)
   something, He just says to it, “Be!” and it is. (Surat al-Baqara: 117)

                                Adnan Oktar
And in your creation and all the creatures He has spread
         about there are signs for people with certainty.
                                   (Surat al-Jathiyya: 4)

         ees constitute a number of families, with some 20,000 species.
         They possess the most astonishing knowledge of engineering
         and architecture in the animal kingdom, stand out from many
study their means of communication.
   The bees dealt with in this book possess rather different properties
trunks or similar closed areas. A bee colony consists of a queen, a few hun-
dred males, and from 10,000 to 80,000 workers. Of these three very differ-
ent-looking bees, two—the queen and the workers—are female.
communicative substances that maintain the unity of the colony and the
working of the various systems inside it.
and the necessary organs to collect food for themselves. Their only func-
tion is to fertilize the queen. The worker bees perform all such other tasks
gathering food, producing royal jelly, regulating the temperature in the
hive, cleaning it of debris and defending it.
the care of the larvae to meeting the general needs of the nest, is per-
formed to the full. This can be seen more clearly when we detail the care
and altruistic behavior that the other bees display to their young.

   The young of some creatures require greater care than the young of
form of care at each stage.

                                 Adnan Oktar
14                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

adulthood by completing their larval and pupal stages. Throughout this
of their developing young.
egg in it and moves on.
     Once the conditions essential to the development of the eggs have been

     The Worker Bees’ Special Care of the Larvae
with enormous sensitivity hatch and white, maggotlike larvae emerge.1
bees at all.
physical development. As a result of their regular feeding during this
look after them. These nurse bees are in a constant state of motion and eas-
ily monitor the eggs and larvae. Although the feeding needs of these thou-
sands of larvae change from day to day, there is never any confusion. The
                                   Harun Yahya                             15

or each one’s nutritional needs.
workers adopt a feeding program for the young bees during the larva
experience no problems with their feeding of the larvae.
   The larvae within the hive continue growing in specially prepared
spinning around itself a papery cocoon from a substance it generates it-
                                The bee larvae thus move on to their pupal
                            stage. Before we examine the details further,
                            one particular point requires special atten-
                            tion—the nature of the substance from which
                            they weave their cocoon, produced by the two
                            silk glands on the larva’s head.

                            Bee larvae, resembling mag-
                            gots, hatch after three days
                            from eggs laid by the queen.

                                             Within 6 days, bee
                                            larvae reach 1,500
                                         times their body weight
                                          and are barely able to
                                          fit into the cells. (Left)
                                         After that, growth stops
                                           and their pupal stage
                                               begins. (Right)

                                 Adnan Oktar
16                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

     One characteristic of this substance is that after coming into contact
contains is a powerful bactericide and prevents infection. Scientists study-
ing bees estimate that the cocoons they weave protect these pupae from
     The material used in weaving the cocoon consists of a combination of
different chemical substances in specific proportions:
     1. The elastic protein fibroin makes up 53.67%, a compound that in-
cludes glycol (66.5%), alanine (21%), leucine (1.5%), arginine (1%) and ty-
rosine (10%).
and 25% leucine, constitutes 20.36%.
     3. Other proteins constitute another 24.43%.
     4. 1.39% is wax.
     5. Fat and resin constitute 0.10%.
larvae have weaved their cocoons using thread with that exact formula.
Moreover, the bee larvae produce this complex substance only when they
on its own to produce such a substance? Did the larva hit upon the for-
mula for the protective chemical substance on its own? Did it succeed in
possible would be to distance oneself from science and reason, because
                                      Harun Yahya                                    17

                                              On the left is the anatomical structure of lar-
                          Spiracles           vae, whose care is undertaken by other bees. It
                                              is absolutely impossible for such a creature,
                                              which resembles an eyeless morsel of flesh, to
                                              make its own decisions and to produce the
                                              chemical substances necessary for its develop-


    Silk glands   Excretory    Hindgut
                                                    Developmental stages of young bees

   such a claim would be tantamount to accepting that the larval bee pos-
   sesses the information needed to manufacture the chemical formula and is
   capable of mathematical calculations. That would be an unscientific fan-
        However, one most important point needs emphasizing here. Even if
   the creature in question did possess conscious awareness, that would still
   alter nothing, because it is out of the question for any living thing to de-
   velop, on its own, a system, which doesn’t already exist in its body.
   possess logic and reason. Despite that, however, it is impossible for hu-
   mans to develop inside their own bodies’ systems to enable the produc-
   tion of even a very simple chemical formula. That being so, it would be
   illogical and irrational to maintain that an insect could no something that
   human beings, with their reason and consciousness, cannot.

                                      Adnan Oktar
18                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

leucine, arginine and tyrosine, in specific proportions. Another of its com-
ponents, sericin, is a compound of very exact proportions of serine, ala-
nine and leucine. The thread used by the larvae in spinning their cocoons
also contains such substances as wax, fat and resin.
conduct an experiment and wait for the simplest substance among these
wait for days, months, or even millions of years, not one of the atoms com-
prising these substances, let alone those substances themselves, can ever
come into existence by chance. That being so, it’s totally illogical and irra-
tional to claim that each substance in the thread the larvae use to spin their
together to form the thread itself.
of their own accord over the passage of time, but came into being in a sin-
gle moment, with all their systems in working order. This shows that bees
are the work of a Creator. That Creator is God, Who rules the entire uni-
verse and Who possesses superior wisdom.
                                          Harun Yahya                               19

            The Pupal Stage
        can be observed in the cell. Yet within it, the pupa is constantly develop-
        The bee emerges from the cell as an entirely new creature, resembling nei-
        ther the larva nor the pupa. With the completion of its final stage of devel-
        opment, the bee emerges from the pupa with all the perfect systems it will
        need in order to survive—a phenomenon that deserves consideration.
        distances, the compound eyes created for all the functions they will per-
        form, the sting it will use against enemies, its glands, the system which en-
        ables the production of wax, its reproductive system, the leg hairs that

During the pupal stage, all of a bee’s
adult physical characteristics form in
        a confined area. When a bee
emerges, its wings, eyes and all of its
 physical systems are ready for life in
                   the outside world.

                                          Adnan Oktar
20                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

within its cocoon during the pupal stage.
force than either of these?
     The answer to these questions is clear. It is absurd to claim that the in-
sect inside the cocoon could carry out the necessary changes within itself,
of the question for the eye or digestive system, or substances such as en-
zymes and hormones, to form inside a pupa that develops as a result of
happenstance changes in itself. Neither can there be any question of an ex-
ternal intervention in the pupa.
will require. Such a flawless development can only be performed by a su-
perior and matchless Power—God, Who is matchless in creation.

                                                    Every bee emerges from the cell
                                                    with all its bodily structures fully
                                                    formed. Neither happenstance nor
                                                    the bee itself can bring this about.

                                                                           When a bee
                                                                           opens the cover
                                                                           of its cell and
                                                                           emerges, its
                                                                           hairs are wet for
                                                                           the first few mo-
                                                                           ments. Shortly
                                                                           afterwards, its
                                                                           hairs dry and the
                                                                           bee begins to
                                                                           perform its du-
                                                                           ties in the hive.
                                 Harun Yahya                               21

   The order within the hive is particularly striking. For that reason, sci-
entists have performed very detailed studies of bees, starting with how
that order is established inside the hive, the criteria by which tasks are di-
vided, and how such enormous communities are able to cooperate so
provoking for the researchers themselves. In particular, proponents of the
theory of evolution—which maintains that living things came into being
by chance—were forced to consider the contradictions, which now con-
fronted them.
logical explanation of how these instincts could have emerged in the first
   Evolutionists maintain that instinct is a feature acquired through the
mechanism known as natural selection. Natural selection mandates that
made permanent in that living thing and thus transmitted to subsequent
generations. On careful inspection, however, it’s clear that consciousness
and some decision-making mechanism are necessary for any such selec-

                                 Adnan Oktar
                                               Harun Yahya                     23

     form of behavior, then determine that such behavior would give it signifi-
     cant long-term advantages, and then, as the result of a conscious decision,
     make that behavior “instinctive” and permanent.
     form of behavior that might prove advantageous, but they are even un-
     aware of their own situation.
         Take the example of the cocoon-spinning larva examined in the preced-
     establish that the most suitable developmental environment is within the
     cocoon? Is it possible for them to calculate this and make the necessary de-
         At this point, evolutionists find themselves in a grave inconsistency.
     Only a conscious entity can give these creatures the features and instinc-
     tive behavior they require. Yet to accept that premise is to accept the exis-
     tence of a Creator. To put it another way, the flawless design in nature
     belongs to God, and all forms of behavior defined as “instinctive” are in-
     spired by Him. Evolutionists are actually well aware of this. They know
     that such a small and unconscious creature as the honeybee can never pos-
     sess these extraordinary abilities by its own will. Yet even though evolu-
     tionists see the superior power of God and realize the impossibility of
     their own claims, still they refuse to abandon their theory.
         In the past, there have been people who shared that exact same mind-
     who ignored the evident miracles that this blessed prophet performed and
     continued to deny the manifest existence of God. In the Qur’an, God re-

According to evolutionists, every living thing fights to protect its own in-
terests. Yet bees exhibit a striking cooperation, and the order stemming
from that cooperation—quite incompatible with evolutionist claims—is
clear evidence that bees act in accordance with God’s inspiration.
24                        THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                 veals the situation of such people:
             And they repudiated them wrongly and haughtily, in spite of
         their own certainty about them. See the final fate of the cor-
     rupters. (Surat an-Naml: 14)

     During their studies of life and nature, scientists have encountered
very different proofs of creation in not one or two, but hundreds, thou-
sands and even millions of species. Countless times, therefore, they’ve
had to admit their claims with regard to instinct are meaningless.
     These words by the geneticist Gordon Taylor clearly reveal the
dilemma facing evolutionists:
     first place and became hereditarily fixed, we are given no answer . . . .9
the difficulties faced by his father in this regard:
     Chapter III. of the Sketch, which concludes the first part, treats of the varia-
     tions which occur in the instincts and habits of animals . . . It seems to have
     the Origin is specially mentioned (Introduction, page 5) as one of the “most ap-
     parent and gravest difficulties on the theory.”10
For example, this is how Darwin confesses that animal instincts overturn
his theory in his The Origin of Species:
     Many instincts are so wonderful that their development will probably appear
     Regarding the impossibility of instincts developing, Darwin had this to
                                    Harun Yahya                                  25

    Darwin, originator of the theory that bears his name, many times ad-
mitted the impossibility of the complex and advantageous forms of be-
havior seen in living things having been acquired by means of natural
selection. However, he also stated why he persisted with that claim, de-
spite its nonsensical nature:
own words quoted above Charles Darwin stated that it would be illogical
not to accept that instincts were created—but that he found it more per-
sonally satisfying to persist in denial, based on the use of the imagination.
one’s own certainty about it,” mentioned in the Qur’anic verse cited ear-
    The common features among the slave-making ants and cuckoos cited
making plans compatible with that tactic, and 3) applying these to the let-
ter. Developing a tactic to deceive another creature, and drawing up plans
to destroy an enemy by identifying his weak points, come about as the re-
sult of reason and planning and judgment. The fact is, however, that nei-
ther ants nor cuckoos possess the powers of reason and judgment.
anyone else the tactics they employ. Neither do they possess any accumu-
lated knowledge. These creatures, totally devoid of any power of thought,
were created by God together with all the characteristics they possess.
Thanks to their being inspired by God, they perform these functions re-
quiring reason and judgment.

                                   Adnan Oktar
                      ANIMALS THAT POSE AN INSOLUBLE
                         DILEMMA FOR DARWINISM

    The conscious behavior of bees is one               the moment the cuckoo hatches, is
    of those surprises that pose an insol-              one of the phenomena that made it
    uble dilemma for followers of                       so difficult for Darwin to defend his
    Darwin. Yet the theory of evolution                 theory.
    cannot explain not only the behavior
                                                        Similarly, some ants kidnap the lar-
    of bees, but that of a great many
                                                        vae of other species of ant and en-
    other creatures. Female cuckoos, for
                                                        slave them—another example of
    example, lay an egg in other species’
                                                        animal behavior that poses a
    nests and leave it to hatch and be
                                                        dilemma for Darwin. The most impor-
    reared by these foster parents. In this
                                                        tant characteristic of these so-called
    way, they ensure that their own off-
                                                        slave-making ants is the way they
    spring are looked after by another
                                                        fight to extract another colony’s lar-
    species. The young cuckoo hatches
                                                        vae, rear them, and then use them as
    before the other eggs in the nest,
                                                        slave labor for their own purposes. In
    even though it joins them later, and
                                                        doing this, slave-making ants imitate
    the first thing it does is to push the
                                                        the alarm-scent given off by the
    other eggs out, selecting a time
                                                        other colony and instill panic in its
    when the parent birds are absent in
                                                        members. As the members of the
    order to do this. The young cuckoo
                                                        colony under attack flee, the slave-
    thus guarantees its own survival.
                                                        making ants seize their food stores
    This conscious behavior, displayed
                                                        and kidnap their larvae.

  These pictures show a fe-
      male cuckoo (side), a
   young cuckoo throwing
the other bird’s eggs out of
 the nest (middle), and the
     real owner of the nest
feeding the young cuckoo,
 which has actually grown
    larger than its host (far

                                Harun Yahya                               27

   Bees Deal a Lethal Blow to the “Instinct” Claim
   No matter how much evolutionists may ignore the behavior of living
the claims of evolutionists.
to be seen in beehives. On the contrary, bees behave most altruistically to-
wards one another and display great cooperation. A comparison of the
general order within the hive will be enough to demonstrate that the intel-
ligent, altruistic and disciplined behavior of bees does not arise from these
creatures themselves and cannot come about by chance.
   If we imagine the same number of human beings living together as
will be established only following a division of labor carried out with pre-
cise organization.
out their duties in a most disciplined way. That is because bees were cre-
ated together with their characteristics by God. As we have already seen
of infinite might and knowledge, Who brings about the order and impec-
cable discipline among the tens of thousands of bees living together in
their dark hive.

                                Adnan Oktar
28                         THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

such as caring for the young, cleaning, feeding, food-gathering and stor-
age of honey and pollen. Before considering the tasks of the worker bees
     1. Cleaning the hive
     2. Caring for the larvae and the young
     3. Feeding the queen and the drones
     4. Making honey
     5. Building and maintaining the combs
     6. Hive ventilation
     7. Hive security
     The German scientist Gustav Rosch sought answers to these questions.
worker bees take on completely different roles during their first three
     - First period: Days 1 and 2
     - Second period: Days 3 through 9
     - Third period: Days 10 through 16
     - Fourth period: Days 17 through 20
     - Fifth period: Day 21 and after.
Worker bees are responsible for just about all the jobs in the hive, home to a very large num-
ber of bees. The order within the hive ensures that the worker bees fulfill all their responsibil-
30                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

also change their duties instantly. This is an enormous advantage in a soci-
ety as crowded as the hive’s. If the distribution of labor among bees were
part in the defense, and security becomes an immediate priority.
     The way that bees suddenly change jobs is actually no different than
someone working in the health field suddenly taking up employment in
architecture or engineering. To make a comparison with human beings,
people capable of serving in different capacities are described as intelli-
gent. Yet when these characteristics, perfectly normal for human beings,
come to apply to insects, matters are rather different because human be-
ings acquire experience and an accumulation of knowledge in different
clear therefore that this is an extraordinary situation. How are the accu-
mulated knowledge and abilities of bees to be accounted for? By whom
were these skills taught to them?
these myriad abilities is either chance or the old mythological figure of
natural selection turns bees into expert architects, dedicated caretakers
world consisting of birds, insects, reptiles, trees, stones and flowers—can-
not produce a bee through a string of coincidences. It cannot create a bee’s
thereof, was created by God.
     Like all living things on Earth, bees act in accord with God’s inspira-
                                          Harun Yahya                                           31

tion. He is the one and only source of their intelligent behavior and the
abilities they possess.

    The Main Stages in the Lives of Worker Bees
    First Stage: Cleaning Brood Cells
they behave in a very conscious manner. Each bee has its own specific du-


                                          Adnan Oktar
32                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                                                                    One of the most
                                                                    important duties
                                                                    of worker bees is
                                                                    the cleanliness of
                                                                    the hive. The pic-
                                                                    ture to the side
                                                                    shows worker
                                                                    bees opening the
                                                                    covers of the cells
                                                                    from which the
                                                                    larvae have
                                                                    emerged, check-
                                                                    ing whether these
                                                                    cells are fit for the
                                                                    queen to lay eggs
                                                                    in, and occupying
                                                                    themselves with

ties. Tens of thousands of bees act with complete harmony, and order in
the hive is quickly established with no confusion ever arising.
     A worker bee’s first job is cleaning. Emerging from the pupa, a bee im-
mediately sets about this task. Beginning with its own cell, it cleans the
therefore need to be cleaned in preparation for new eggs.
for several minutes, carefully licking and cleaning the cell walls. In addi-
tion, the new-hatched worker bees also spend their first two days explor-
ing the hive in order to get their bearings—since later in their lives, the
                                        Harun Yahya                                        33

   Second Stage: Tending Larvae
   Bee larvae require greater care and attention than the young of many
special feeding menu.
feeding those larvae which have completed their third days. These they

the day and look after them with the greatest care.

                                       Adnan Oktar
34                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

bread, they are given different food:
seen above, the larvae are then fed on bee bread.
a queen. Unlike other larvae, future queens are fed on royal jelly through-
out their larval stage.18

     Third Stage: Construction
day and becoming ready to produce wax.19 The activities of the hypopha-
ryngeal glands have now been halted. Now 12 days old, the workers stop
feeding the young and set about constructing honeycombs consisting of
we’ll examine it in detail later in this book.)
They construct them only when the site they live in fails to respond to re-
quirements or when they migrate elsewhere. Apart from that, they gener-
ally use wax to repair the combs—a task that does not take up that much
     Two of these involve distributing foodstuffs—pollen and nectar—col-
lected from the outside to the other bees and storing them in the comb
cells. The bees take the honey from the nectar-gathering bees on their re-
turn to the hive, divide it among their hungry fellows as appropriate, and
store the rest in honeycombs.20
                                 Harun Yahya                                  35

                                                                       When bees re-
                                                                       turn to the hive
                                                                       they either dis-
                                                                       tribute it to the
                                                                       other bees or
                                                                       else store it in
                                                                       the combs.

   Major Cleaning in the Hive
   During this period, the third job performed by the worker bees is clean-
served their purpose, the bodies of bees which have died, remains of co-
coons and waste materials from bees that have newly emerged from their
cells—and deposit it some meters away.21
a substance known as propolis, also known as bee glue, which they pro-
duce by adding saliva to the sticky resin that they gather from the buds of
some trees. They then collect this substance in special structures called
pollen baskets on their hind legs and carry it back to the hive. One charac-
teristic feature of propolis is that it prevents any bacterial growth.22
   Bees make a particularly accurate use of propolis’s bactericidal quali-
ties. By using it to cover intruding insects that they have killed but which
mummification process.
functions performed by the bees.
body will decay and that the substances resulting from its putrefaction

                                 Adnan Oktar
36                          THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

bees use their mandibles to scrape resin off of trees.

could sicken the hive’s inhabitants.
Somehow, they are also aware that in
order to prevent its decay, the dead crea-
ture needs to be subjected to a specific
chemical process. And so they use propolis,
with its property of killing bacteria, for this
mummification process.
     But how do the bees—emerged as adults less
than a month ago—know that this creature will
decay and how to eliminate its eventual harmful ef-
fects? Furthermore, how could they have thought of using,
generations of their own?
                                Harun Yahya                               37

knack of mummification, the ingredients and production of the antiseptic
details for themselves. Neither can they have possibly learned these
processes, which require intelligence and knowledge at every stage, by
chance, since chance cannot lead to conscious, rational behavior.

   The Diverse Uses of Propolis
material to repair crevices and holes in the walls. Moreover, in some vol-
canic regions such as in Salerno in southern Italy, where temperatures
that the combs do not melt.23
   When it comes to the collection and dispersal of propolis, there is a lit-
eral division of labor among the bees in different parts of the hive. A
propolis-bearing bee returns to the hive in a different way than one carry-
ing pollen. The pollen-bearer looks for an empty cell in which to deposit
they need from its basket. They then immediately mix it with wax, form-
ing a sticky adhesive that they use in the construction process.
   The striking point is that the propolis-bearing bee does not become in-
volved in the construction work, but waits for its fellows engaged in the

                                Adnan Oktar
38                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

particular job. Each one takes care of its own assign-
                                                             Everything in
ment, and the bees help out on another job only
                                                             the heavens
when something goes wrong in it. For that reason, a
bee does not become involved in both resin gather-
                                                             and everything
ing and patching and mummification, or also in               in the Earth
dragging outside what has been mummified.                    belongs to
Although every bee in the hive possesses the ability         God. All mat-
to perform all these tasks, it performs its own task in      ters return to
the best possible manner and leaves the other jobs           God. (Surah Al
to those of its fellows responsible for them.                ‘Imran: 109)
     Concerning the lives of the worker bees, one
into action for an entirely different work.
number of problems would be experienced. During the larvae tending
changes, because everything happens in a very controlled manner, within
come about through chance development.
of function.

     Fourth Stage: Guarding the Hive

                                                                A guard bee
                                                                at the en-
                                                                trance to the

Every creature which approaches—bees included—can enter only after
the guard duty.
   The way bees stand guard over the hive may be compared to how im-
migration officers work on national frontiers. A country’s border security
is of the greatest importance, for which reason a large number of precau-
tions are taken. In the same way, security in the hive is also very impor-
tant: Guard bees allow absolutely no strangers into the hive.
   All the bees bear a very close resemblance to one another, yet any for-

    Workers releasing alarm chemicals through the hive

                                    Adnan Oktar
40                            THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

eign bees entering the hive are immediately identified. Scientists research-
ing the question of how bees accomplish this came up with some very sur-
prising conclusions:
Those that do not carry the hive’s distinctive odor therefore represent a
attacked by the guard bees.
     Bees that try to enter another hive are immediately identified by its
by the guards.

      Since they do not carry the hive odor,
     outsiders trying to enter it are attacked
            and repulsed by the guard bees.
                                 Harun Yahya                                 41

                                                               When the hive is
                                                               attacked, the guard
                                                               bees immediately
                                                               release a chemical
                                                               substance, or
                                                               pheromone. This
                                                               pheromone and the
                                                               tense posture of
                                                               the bees set the
                                                               whole hive in mo-
                                                               tion. The workers
                                                               defend the hive at
                                                               the cost of their
                                                               own lives.

   When an outsider appears at the entrance to the hive, the sentries im-
mediately display a forceful reaction, using their stings against any crea-
ture perceived as being from outside the hive. Right after the guard bees’
pheromones that initiate the attack, the characteristic posture and behav-
ior of the restless bees also represent an alarm signal to the other bees in
bees swarm to the hive’s entrance. The stronger the pheromone released
by the guard bees, the greater the excitement and aggression of the oth-
   These particular pheromones play a most important role in communi-
cation among bees, and have been used ever since the first bees appeared
on Earth. Bees produce and release these chemicals with special features

                                 Adnan Oktar
42                          THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                                                                              Venom sac


                                                                       Protractor muscle
     When a bee stings you, the barb on
                                                                        Retractor muscle
     its stinger pierces your skin. In the
     process, the entire sting mechanism is
     torn out, leaving the bee mortally
     wounded. Even after the dying bee
     has departed, a set of muscles push                    Barbed lancets
     the barb in deeper and continue to
     contract in such a way as to pump         The drawing above shows the bee-
     more venom into the wound. The            sting mechanism, with such struc-
     small photograph shows a stinger de-      tures as the muscles and venom
     tached from a bee’s body.                 sac.
                                 Harun Yahya                                43

    The Self-Sacrifice of Worker Bees
place their own lives in danger. That is because any bee that attacks an ag-
gressor faces death because it is unable to retract its sting. Like the spines
of a hedgehog, the bee’s stinger is barbed that prevent it from being with-
drawn from the skin of many animals. The guard bees can retract their
stings only from other bees or certain other animals—and the guards suf-
fer no harm in such cases. However, if a bee stings a human being and
and the bee is thus eviscerated. The area of the abdomen which is thus de-
tached contains the venom sac and the nerves that control it. In the wake
longer attached to the bee.27
    This self-sacrificing behavior of bees refutes the evolutionists’ claim
seek to protect only their own line of descent.

    The True Reason for Bees’ Self-Sacrificial Behavior
    Self-sacrifice is a form of behavior that cannot be explained by the the-
ory of evolution’s “struggle for survival” thesis. Evolutionist claims take
individuals, since living things display considerable behavior such as mu-
tual cooperation and self-sacrifice. In reply to that, some evolutionists
claim that living things sacrifice themselves to ensure the continuity of

                                 Adnan Oktar
44                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

This claim contains a number of inconsistencies, however.
are much larger than themselves, without a moment’s hesitation. The
bees able to think in terms of defending their colony’s young as they en-
gage in such behavior? Can bees possess the concepts of past and future
and have concerns and expectations regarding these? What advantage can
their deaths bring to worker bees as they defend their hive?
behavior that cannot possibly have arisen by chance. This behavior has
this book act according to God’s inspiration. All living things in the uni-
verse—horses, birds, insects, trees, flowers, leopards and elephants—have
God reveals His dominion over the living world in Surah Hud:
     on a Straight Path. (Surah Hud: 56)

     Fifth Stage: Foraging
quick energy and the raw material for honey. Since bees are unable to for-

      he Japanese giant hornets are lit-     grade (117o F). The honeybees are able
      erally a nightmare for the intro-      to withstand this heat, but it spells
      duced European honeybees. A            death for hornets.
colony of 30,000 European honeybees
can be killed in roughly three hours by
a group of some 30 hornets, which then
occupy the hive. Local honeybees, on          “Unusual thermal defence by a honey-
the other hand, have been created with         bee against mass attack by hornets,”
                                               Nature, Vol. 377, 28 September 1995,
a perfect defense mechanism.                                            pp. 334-336.
When a hornet discovers a new colony,
it secretes a special marking pheromone
to inform the others of the fact. Since
that pheromone is also detected by the
Japanese honeybees, they all gather at
the entrance of the hive to defend it.
When a hornet approaches, some 500
bees take to the air, surround it in a
tight ball and generate muscle heat.
In an infrared photograph taken of such
an attack, the temperature in the white
regions rises as high as 47 degrees centi-

                                                                     The Japanese honeybees
                                                                     kill the attacking hornets
                                                                     by generating high tem-
46                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

the younger bees to eat in rainy weather.28
this transition by adding nectar and various enzymes to the pollen col-
lected by flowers.29
                                Harun Yahya                                      47

and the workers leave the hive to begin
their new and dangerous jobs. It is haz-
ardous to fly around outside among the
flowers because all the bees’ natural en-
emies, such as spiders and dragonflies,
live there. In addition, this task is a
rather tiring one, since the bees must
constantly fly back and forth between
the hive and the flowers, their source of
food. Bees whose flight muscles wear
out die soon afterwards.
   But meanwhile, their bodies are             Foraging bees have some dangerous ene-
equipped with specially created systems       mies, such as the mantis (above), dragonfly
                                                                              and spider.
to collect nectar and pollen. They swal-
low nectar to fill their internal honey sacs. They do not swallow pollen as
sides of their hind legs.

   Bees’ Pollen Baskets
and serves to carry the pollen. The underside of the bees’ abdomen is com-
pletely covered in soft hairs. The pollen sticks to these when the worker
small amount of honey to give it enough energy before flying off. In addi-
tion, it uses this honey to place in its baskets the pollen it collects. When
forelegs to scrape up the pollen it finds there and moistens it with the re-
were covered in flour.

                                Adnan Oktar
The Keys of the heavens and Earth be-
long to Him. He expands the provi-
sion of anyone He wills or restricts it.
He has knowledge of all things.
(Surat ash-Shura: 12)
                                 Harun Yahya                                     49

forced into the pollen basket on the outer part of
the leg. The pollen is thus collected in one place,
and the bee continues doing this until, eventu-
ally, a large deposit of pollen forms, and the bas-
ket is filled. The bee occasionally strikes the
outer surface of the basket with its legs in order
to keep the pollen mass from falling off, thus set-
tling it safely, and heads off back to-
ward the hive. On arriving, the pollen
is placed in cells specially set aside
for it.31
    Many insects collect pollen from
flowers, but none achieve such pro-
ductive results as bees, because their
bodies are so ideally suited to pollen
gathering. Even so, it requires consid-                                               2
erable work, because after working
for a very long time, the bee carries
only two pollen packets back to the
hive. It takes an average of 20 pairs of
pollen packages to fill one honey-
comb cell. This means the bees must
work non-stop.32
    From flowers, bees collect two dis-
tinct substances that are each very        Bees use the special systems created by God in
                                           their hind legs to carry pollen.
different to one another, both in terms    1 – The bee scrapes the pollen collected on the
of their contents, their manner of col-    combs, using its pollen rakes.
                                           2 – The pollen is then pushed towards the
                                           pollen basket by pumping the legs.
                                           3 – Finally the pollen, moistened with a quan-
                                           tity of regurgitated honey, is transported back
                                           to the nest.
50                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                                    Thanks to their special mouthparts, hairy
                                    bodies and pollen baskets, bees can col-
                                    lect pollen in a far more productive
                                    manner than other insects do. These pic-
                                    tures show bees who have filled their
                                    baskets with pollen.

lection and where they are used. Bees need a different system to collect
nectar from flowers from what they use for collecting pollen. That is be-
cause the location of nectar varies according to the plant’s structure. In
for bees, since they have a special organ known as the proboscis—an elon-
gated tubular mouthpart that allows them to reach nectar in the depths of
a flower. They also use their proboscis to drink honey and water. The pro-
boscis plays a vital role in exchanging foodstuffs among bees, and is also
                                     Harun Yahya                                 51

tube, and then through the esophagus into the “honey stomach.” Bees col-
lect as much nectar as they can carry there, then return to the hive. They
need to visit between 100 and 150 flowers in order to fill their honey stom-
achs of 50 cubic millimeter capacity.34
   The division of labor among bees is clearly dramatized in their collec-
tion and storage of nectar. A bee returning to the hive laden with nectar
mouth to those bees charged with that responsibility, leaving only enough

           Thanks to their flawless bodily structures, bees can easily collect
           nectar from the depths of flowers that other insects cannot
           reach. God has created bees together with features ideally suited
           to their duties.
      52               THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                                 in its stomach to meet its own energy needs,
                                   then flies off again at once to the food
                                    source. Any bee to which the nectar has
                                    been transferred either gives it to still
                                    other bees or else stores it away, depend-
                                   ing on the food needs of the hive on the
                                day in question.35

                               Other Duties
                               After having become adults and beginning to
                              forage, bees can undertake all jobs. Their three-
Mandible                       week life span is sufficient for this.
                                   We have already mentioned that changes
                  Maxilla        take place in the bee’s body throughout her
                  Labium         development, and how jobs in the hive
      Proboscis   Flabellum       change in direct proportion to bodily
                                         changes that take place at different
                                         times in the bee’s body. But these
                                         changes are not irreversible. A bee’s
                                         organs can regain their previous
                                         functions if the needs of the hive re-
                                         quire it. For example, when the hive

                                          The worker proboscis can very in
                                          length from 5.3 to 7.2 millimeters
                                          (0.2087 to 0.2835 inches), depending
                                          on the race. The nectar of some flow-
                                          ers lies deeper down than in others.
                                          It’s thus a major advantage for bees
                                          to possess a long proboscis ideally
                                          suited to extracting nectar from the
                                          base of such flowers.
                                          The pictures at top left show the
                                          bee’s proboscis in extended and
                                          folded positions. As can be seen
                                          below, bees fold their proboscis in-
                                          wards in a Z-shaped pattern when
                                          not in use.
   Form. To Him belong the Most Beautiful
  Names. Everything in the heavens and earth
              (Surat al-Hashr: 24)
54                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

adults no longer engaged in making wax may start to do so in order to re-
pair the damage. Similarly, if the possibility of a problem in feeding the
larvae arises, there may be others whose hypopharyngeal glands come
back into operation to aid the nurse bees. When the honey stock is insuffi-
cient, a greater number of bees may forage out to collect nectar, or if the
assault together.36
to fulfill their responsibilities in a most successful manner.
     Considering all this information, a most important conclusion
emerges. To maintain that bees acquired all their behavioral and physical
characteristics either of their own will or else by chance conflicts with rea-
behave in a similar way, and that the order within the beehive has per-
sisted unchanged ever since the appearance
of the first bees, are clear indications that
                                                      He to Whom the
these insects are directed by an intelligence.
                                                   kingdom of the heav-
All the knowledge they possess is given
                                                   ens and the earth be-
them by an Entity possessed of intelligence.
It is God, with His infinite knowledge, Who          longs. He does not
inspires in bees what they need to do and            have a son and He
what tasks they will undertake at different        has no partner in the
times. God creates everything within a spe-        Kingdom. He created
cific order:                                       everything and deter-
     He is God—the Creator, the Maker, the         mined it most exactly.
     Giver of Form. To Him belong the Most          (Surat al-Furqan: 2)
     Beautiful Names. Everything in the
                                  Harun Yahya                                 55

   (Surat al-Hashr: 24)

   Temperature Regulation in the Hive
temperature of the environment in which they live. Those capable of
snakes, tortoises, fish, snails, worms, lobsters, insects, etc.) change accord-
ing to the temperature of their surroundings.
   Bearing this in mind, it is striking that the temperature in beehives re-
mains unchanged at 35 degrees centigrade (95 degrees Fahrenheit).37
Although bees are unable to regulate the temperature in the hive with
important responsibilities is this stabilization of the hive temperature. No
etc.), honeybees always keep the temperature in the hive under strict con-
trol. From the end of spring to autumn, they maintain a temperature of a
constant 34.5 to 35.5 degrees centigrade (94-96oF).
   Honeybees are strongly affected by temperature changes. Processes
such as the production of wax and honey all take place at a specific tem-
perature. Those most affected by changes in the hive temperature are the
brood cells. Bees engage in various activities in order to stabilize the tem-
perature in the hive regardless of the temperature changes over the course
coldest, the workers throng together around the combs and warm the
start to rise, this mass of bees gradually disperses. If the temperature con-
tinues to rise, the bees start to beat their wings in order to ventilate this re-
gion and lower the temperature. They seek to lower the temperature by

                                  Adnan Oktar
  56                          THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

  pollen or nectar the foraging bees bring drops of water they’ve collected
  method, the temperature soon returns to its previous level.39 In one exper-
  iment, a hive was placed in direct sunlight on a day when the temperature
  bringing in water constantly from a nearby source to keep the inside tem-
  perature at 35 degrees centigrade (95oF).
  of bees varies between 2.5 and 7.5 centimeters (1 to 3 inches) thick, de-
  move, providing heat for the cluster. (It is known that at 10 degrees centi-
  bees move about more in order to generate more heat. Those on the out-

      Bees achieve temperature balance in the hive by a number of
                                 Harun Yahya                             57

side shrink together, thus ensuring their bodies make less contact with the
cold air.
far as -30oC (-22oF).41
   These solutions that bees employ in regulating the hive temperature
are exceedingly effective and practical. The question that needs to be con-
sidered is how they discovered these solutions and how they arrived at
the optimum hive temperature. It is most astonishing that an insect
should be able to make such fine calculations.
   First, it is essential for there to be some organ for measuring tempera-
ture in the bee’s body. That being so the question then arises of how such
for this temperature-measuring system sited in their bodies, nor the infor-
mation about when and how to heat their hive, by themselves.
them by God, the Creator of all. The systems they possess and the match-
less artistry also point us to Him.

   The Death of the Worker Bees
begin gathering food.

                                 Adnan Oktar
                        EFFICIENT INSECT FLIGHT

A        n article in the pro-evolution          are more efficient on hot summer days.
         magazine New Scientist on 12            Harrison then researched the reason why
         October 1996 stated that insect         bee flight was less efficient in winter. He
flight was significantly inefficient and un-     concluded that the heat given off in inef-
productive, and that only 6% of the meta-        fective, inefficient flights helped to keep
bolic power expended was converted into          them warm on cold days. This occupies an
mechanical power. The rest, it was               important role in regulating the hive tem-
claimed, was dissipated in the form of           perature. The conclusion from these de-
heat.                                            tailed studies was that bees’ wing muscles
Jon Harrison of Arizona State University         serve two important purposes: to allow
and his team then set about studying this,       the bee to fly, but also to establish the re-
with astonishing results. There were actu-       quired temperature in the hive. Thanks to
ally very important reasons for the low ef-      their wing design, bees were able to vary
ficiency in flight. These results were           their heat production and flight efficiency
published in a report titled “Achievement        according to the surrounding conditions
of Thermal Stability by Varying Metabolic        and in light of their requirements.
Heat Production in Flying Honeybees” in
                                                 As this example shows, scientists studying
Science magazine (4 October 1996, Vol.
                                                 a creature cannot arrive at accurate find-
                                                 ings if they look for chance developments
bees’ body temperatures, flight metabolic
                                                 or faulty features. We see very clearly that
rates and wing-beat frequencies were
                                                 there are actually flawless features in na-
measured by changing the air tempera-
                                                 ture: All life forms possess the exact char-
ture around the hive. When the air tem-
                                                 acteristics they need, and always have.
perature rose from 20 to 40 degrees
                                                 There can be no doubt that this is God’s
centigrade (from 68 to 104 degrees
                                                 flawless creation, with His infinite might
Fahrenheit), the wing-beat frequency de-
                                                 and wisdom.
creased by 16% and the metabolic rate by
50%, while their thoracic temperatures re-       When people engage in research with
mained stable. Bees’ wing-beat frequen-          that perspective in mind—in other words,
cies registered a fall, but caused no            when they seek to study that perfection—
problem in flight. From all this, it was real-   they can witness the superior art of cre-
ized that as the temperature rose, bee           ation in nature from much closer up and
flight became more effective and produc-         achieve results much faster.
tive. Bees’ muscles, it was thus discovered,
                                          Harun Yahya                                         59

     The new individuals that hatch out in the autumn will assume charge
 of maintaining the colony. Since the emergence of these bees coincides
 live off foodstuffs already stored by previous generations of workers.
 colonies themselves are rather long-lived—so much so, in fact, that bar-
 ring such circumstances as fire and drought, they are able to survive for 20
 years or more.

     Bees Emerged in a Single Moment
 despite those large numbers, there is never the slightest confusion or dis-
 order. The larvae never go hungry. Defense is never neglected, nor is the


                                         Adnan Oktar
60                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

stages of their lives and successfully complete all the tasks entrusted to
     The activities of worker bees are described in The Marvels of Animal
Behavior, a book published by the National Geographic Society:
     If you watch the workers, it soon becomes obvious that their behavior is con-
     sistent and that they do not shift aimlessly from task to task. One bee may
     attend the queen; a third forages in the field. How does each worker know pre-
     cisely what to do and when to do it? 43
     In order to carry out their jobs in the hive, as mentioned earlier, work-
ers sometimes use special fluids and at other times, organs created for the
need to exist at the same time. The venom and stinger essential to the de-
fense of the hive, the elongated mouthpart used to collect nectar from
existed since bees first appeared on Earth. In addition, the behavior de-
scribed by evolutionists as “instinctive” must also have existed since their
existence for as long as bees themselves have.
     Were only one of bees’ features not to exist, then insuperable difficul-
ties would arise, and these creatures would be unable to survive. This fact
                                Harun Yahya                           61

nectar, and if they did not secrete wax,
they would be unable to build combs. If
                                              Don’t you know that
they did not know how to care for the
                                              God is He to Whom
larvae and build the honeycombs, their
                                              the kingdom of the
hives would become extinct. Even if
                                              heavens and the
they had venom glands but lacked the
knowledge to protect the hive, those          Earth belongs and
glands would serve no purpose. In             that, besides God,
short, all bees’ bodily systems and abili-    you have no protec-
ties need to have emerged at the same         tor and no helper?
time, and in complete form, which can-        (Surat al-Baqara:
not possibly have occurred by chance.         107)
   All this demonstrates that bees must
is able to create everything, Who has knowledge of everything:
   what those besides Him have created! The wrongdoers are clearly
   misguided. (Surah Luqman: 10-11)

                                Adnan Oktar
                              THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                       THE QUEEN BEE WHO ENSURES
                        THE CONTINUITY OF THE HIVE
                      A brief look at the beehive reveals that the workers take par-
    ticular care of one bee, far larger than themselves. The other bees supply
   longevity is of vital importance to the entire hive. She ensures the continu-
   ity of the colony. In addition, discipline in the colony is ensured by sub-
   stances she releases.

 The queen bee is of the
   utmost importance to
    the hive, keeping the
        colony alive. The
  worker bees therefore
      meet all her needs.
 This photograph shows
  workers taking a close
interest in all aspects of
     the queen’s welfare,
  feeding her with great
  care and ensuring her
    safety. It is God Who
   provides the workers
    with this dedication.
 The bees behave under
          His inspiration.
                                  Harun Yahya                                    63


   The Queen: A Rather Different Bee
stage. Queens are raised in different combs with different features from
those of the other bees. This site where the queen is raised consists of spe-
cial cells hanging upside down from the comb. Since she is larger than the
   As has been emphasized in earlier sections, there is no difference be-
tween the egg that hatches into a queen and an egg that produces the
workers. The queen is the result of spe-
cial feeding with royal jelly over her
six-day larval period, and emerges
not as an ordinary female worker,
but as one very different in terms of
appearance and function. Workers
are fed royal jelly for only three days,
but the queen receives it for the full
six days of her larval stage.45
   The ingredients and amount of
the royal jelly given to the queen are
specially regulated. Research has es-
tablished that while other bees are
only given 3 milligrams throughout
their larval stage, the queen is given
10 milligrams. Simply on account of
                                                      The larvae of queen bees are
this difference in feeding, the queen
                                                      raised in special brood cells.
and a worker emerge as two very dif-
ferent creatures, with very different
morphological characteristics from one another.46

                                  Adnan Oktar
64                          THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE


                     Fertilized                   Unfertilized   From the eggs
                                                                 laid by the
                                                                 queen, different
                                                                 types of bee
            Light                 Heavy feeding                  emerge, de-
           feeding                + Royal Jelly                  pending on the
                                                                 modes of fertil-
                                                                 ization and


     Differences between the Queen and the Other Bees
pollen baskets. Most important of all, although the queen hatches from ex-
actly the same sort of egg as the workers, she lives for from 4 to 5 years (ex-
cept for those emerging in winter, who live for a few months), rather than
just 5 to 6 weeks.

Characteristic                           Worker                Queen               Drone
Optic lobe of brain                      Medium                Small               Large
Number of antennal plate organs          3000                  1600                30000
Relative ratio of antennal surface       2                     1                   3

Hypopharyngeal                           Present               Absent              Absent
Mandibular                               Large                 Very large          Small
Head salivary (labial)                   Large                 Large               Absent
Wax glands                               Present               Absent              Absent
Nasonov (concerned with direction        Present               Absent              Absent
Dufour (concerned with defense)          Reduced           Large                   Absent
Koshevnikov (scent-secreting gland)      Reduced or absent Present                 Absent

Reproductive and sting
Ovary or testis                          Reduced ovaries       Enlarged ovaries    Testis
Number of ovarioles                      2 to 12               150 to 180          None
Spermatheca                              Not developed         Large               None
Sting barbs                              Strong                Minute              No sting
Sting plates                             Loosely attached      Strongly attached   None

Mandibles                                Slender               Robust              Small
Mandibular groove                        Present               Absent              Absent
Proboscis                                Long                  Short               Short

Leg and wing
Pollen press and comb                    Present               Absent              Absent
Pollen basket                            Present               Absent              Absent
Wing sensilla                            Medium                Fewest              Most

66                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

     The Queen’s First Days
     Following her larval stage, the queen goes
through the pupal phase, just like all other
bees, and emerges as an adult queen 16 days
after the egg phase. In size, she is rather
larger than the workers, and rather longer
than the male drones.
     To help ensure the security of the hive, and
bearing all potential circumstances in mind,
the workers raise several queens at a time, not
just one. In the event that any harm befalls the
old queen, a new queen immediately begins
to be raised. The first thing she does is to
move around the combs until she finds an un-
covered cell with honey in it. She eats the
honey she finds and rapidly moves around
the other combs. Her objective is to find and
kill the other pupating, potential queens. As
soon as she finds another unhatched queen,
she uses her lower jaw to tear open the cell in
which the queen pupa lies, and stings her
rival. Alternatively, she may simply leave the
cell cap open and leave the queen to be de-
stroyed by the workers.
     If the queen encounters another adult
queen in the hive, the two attack each other
in a fight to the death, which contest is de-
cided when one manages to sting the other.
But this is not a frequent occurrence in the
hive, because queens confront one another
                                                    As soon as the queen bee emerges
only if the existing queen is very old or has
                                                    from the cell, the first thing she
not yet left the colony to establish a new          does is to destroy the other queen
                                                    in the hive. These photos show
                                                    queens fighting to the death.
                                 Harun Yahya                                67

the existence of only one queen in the hive is essential for the establish-
ment of discipline.
   There are two circumstances under which the queen leaves the hive:
constantly moves around the hive. On days 5 and 6, she visits the hive en-
trance frequently. The following day or the day after, she leaves on short
surroundings. These flights start out with short duration, but become
longer as the days go by.49

   The Queen’s Mating Flight
locate her.
the queen emerges from the pupa.50 The queen’s reproductive organs con-
sist of two ovaries which produce her eggs, and a small receptacle at her

                                 Adnan Oktar
    68                         THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                                        queen takes place on the wing. Following
                                        fertilization, the male generally dies as
                                        the queen bee flies back to the hive.
                                           It has been established that the queen
                                        makes from three to 12 flights during her
                                        mating period, mating with a different
                                        drone each time. Since the sperm from
                                        one male is insufficient to fill her sper-
                                        matheca, she receives sperm from several
                                        males.51 Following each fertilization, the
                                        sperm from all the males is stored to-
                                        gether. The queen will use this sperm ob-
Male bees (drones) waiting for the      tained from the mating flights during her
queen to leave on the mating flight
                                        life span of 4 to 5 years.52 There is an aver-
    age of 6 million spermatozoa in the spermatheca of a mated queen.53
    the bee.
    desires from the spermatheca. (This most miraculous process will be ex-
    amined in greater detail later in this book.)

         A Million Eggs a Year
                                 Harun Yahya                                  69

the queen’s average speed, this means one
fertilized egg laid every minute.
   It has been calculated that a single queen
may lay over one and a half million eggs
within a year.56 Given her normal life span, this
means that a single queen will eventually lay millions
the queen during one day is equivalent to that of her
own body!
her head into the comb cell and inspects it. Having re-
assured herself that the cell is empty and suitable for
having an egg laid in it, she projects her abdomen over
                                                                The queen lays eggs
                                                                  in newly-cleaned
next empty cell. The queen repeats this at least 1,500                        cells.

   How the Queen Determines the Gender
   of the Other Bees
   We have already mentioned that the queen can determine the gender of
emerges from the spermatheca, the egg will remain unfertilized. As a re-
sult of this process, entirely under the queen’s control, female bees emerge

                                 Adnan Oktar
70                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

     When scientists studied the question of how the queen bee can possess
such a system and the criteria by which she determines gender, they ar-
rived at very surprising results. Actually it’s the worker bees who deter-
mine the gender of the egg, despite the queen’s supervision of the process.
is a standard-size 5.2-millimeter (0.2-inch) female cell, then the queen per-
forms fertilization and deposits in it an egg that will eventually hatch into
cells for.59
     The workers also determine the
number of cells. On the basis of the
needs of the hive, they decide
how many worker and how
many drone cells should be
constructed, and how much
space should be reserved
for honey or pollen.60


This drawing shows the repro-         gland
ductive system and sting of a                                             Venom gland
mated queen. The queen bee’s    Spermatheca
reproductive organs consist of                                            Venom Sac
two ovaries that produce her
eggs, and a small receptacle
known as the spermatheca,            Dufour gland
where the sperm from the drones
which have mated with queen
during her mating flight are
stored.                                                         Sting
                                  Harun Yahya                              71

questions spring to mind: Is it possible for an insect to make minute calcu-
brains, and entirely lack such attributes as thought, judgment or calcula-
tion. That being the case, it appears that there is another Power which con-
trols the bees’ behavior. The explanation for the worker bees’ direction of
teaches both groups of insects how to behave.
examined so far demonstrate exceedingly conscious behavior, a flawless
social order in the lives of bees, and the existence of features and struc-
tures fully compatible to carry out that order.
   Quite obviously, no bee can identify the millimetric variations in the di-
mensions of the cells itself, nor decide accordingly on the gender of the
centimeters long and with a brain consisting of very basic nerve connec-
tions. With its own limited intelligence, how can such a creature possibly
understand the purpose behind the comb cells constructed and lay the ap-
propriate egg in each one with no confusion ever arising?
   What emerges as a result of this is the existence of a flawless supervi-
lead. He is the Creator of all:

                                  Adnan Oktar
72                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

     heed? (Surat an-Nahl: 17)

     The Queen’s Authority Secretion
     Under normal conditions, the worker bees do not construct any cells
for queens. The presence of the queen in the hive prevents this. Only in ex-
ceptional circumstances does this situation change. To understand the
by the queen.
This was an interesting cause for speculation among scientists for many
queens or workers due to how much royal jelly they are fed during the lar-
val stage. In fact, the workers too have reproductive organs when they are
Scientists researched the reasons for this and eventually found the answer
they were looking for.
queen’s mandibular glands also allows members of the colony to recog-
nize one another.61 The formula of this chemical is:

                                                  O         H
     9-keto-(E)-2-decenoic acid              CH3-C(CH2)5 C=CCOOH

                                   Harun Yahya                                     73

       Another effect of this signal on the bees is it restrains them from con-
   structing another royal cell for as long as the substance is present in the

                                                         These diagrams show how the
                                                         pheromones released by the queen
                                                           are perceived by the messenger
                                                              workers and distributed to
                                                                 the other workers. They
                                                                   disseminate the
                                                                     pheromone by touch-
                                                                       ing one another and
                                                                         cause internal

                                                        1 – The queen , with worker
                                                        bees waiting around her to
                                                        receive the pheromones she


           queen pheromones   pheromones
                                                            4 – The queen’s pheromone
2 – A worker bee with the                                   will soon be translocated in-
queen’s pheromone on it                                     ternally into the worker bees’

                                              3 – Worker bees distributing
                                              the pheromone by touching
                                              one another
74                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

for each worker has been established as an
average of 0.1μg per day.62 It is the queen
who maintains order in the hive, though           Everything in the
it’s of course impossible for her to take a       heavens and the
personal interest in all its tens of thousands    earth glorifies God.
of individual member bees.
                                                  He is the Almighty,
     The queen substance is constantly
                                                  the All-Wise.
spread through the hive by up to a dozen
                                                  (Surat al-Hadid: 1)
bees that are always around her and care
for her. These lick up the chemical from the
queen’s body and transmit it to the other
a common odor, distinguishing them from members of other colonies.
     Any reduction in this secretion sets the workers into action, because
take a number of measures.63

     When the Queen Ages
     As the queen bee grows older, her strength declines, and the conse-
quences begin to be seen in the hive. The rate of her egg-laying slows
down, for instance, and most important of all, there is a drop in the quan-
tity of the substance she secretes. As we have seen, the odor of this sub-
stance prevents the workers from raising a new queen, so such indications
are a sign for the worker bees. As its level reduces, the workers immedi-
ately begin to construct new royal cells and set about raising new queens.
to suddenly find itself without a queen. That’s because when circum-
stances suddenly change and the colony finds itself facing the danger of
                                             Harun Yahya                                       75

                          Foraging                              Tending the young

Building the comb                                                                          Storing food

   Inhibiting the develop-                                                     Preventing the emer-
   ment of worker ovaries                                                      gence of new queen


      existing larvae with royal jelly. 64
      standard worker size, which might pose a problem for the developing
      queens. Yet for the bees, it represents no difficulty.

                                             Adnan Oktar
76                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

a few candidate queens to that of several workers. Following the prepara-
tion of the queen cells in this manner, the new potential queens are fed
with royal jelly.
     Shortly afterwards, the first of the specially reared queens emerges
from her cell and sets about eliminating her rivals.
queen is fully aware of what she needs to do. There is only one possible ex-
planation for her conscious and goal-oriented behavior and the way in
behavior by His will.

     Male Bees
every other individual has a number of responsibilities. The male bees
their reproductive organs, they are not able to serve any other purpose ex-
cept fertilizing the queen.
     There are very distinctive differences between male and female bees.
Some of these may be listed as follows:
     - Female bees have pollen baskets, whereas males do not.
     - Females have stings, which are absent in males.
                                        Harun Yahya

           hairs on their abdomens—which males lack.
             - Female bees have wax glands; males do not.
        - Female bees construct combs, whereas males are unable to.
   - Unlike males, females are able to collect food.
   - Female bees nurse the young, unlike the males.
The males emerge from these cells in early May.67
   These months are generally when the old queen leaves the hive to es-
tablish a new colony and when new queens are raised in the hive. During
drones for a specific period of time.
clearly see the importance of their being raised in large numbers.
receive enormous care from the workers for a specific period is an impor-
tant precaution, taken for the security of the entire hive. There is of course

                                 Adnan Oktar
78                                               THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                                                              Swarming period

     Hive population (x 1000)

                                                                                The population of the hive
                                                                                falls slightly in winter, but
                                20                                              starts to rise again before
                                                                                spring since new workers
                                                                                are being raised. This pop-
                                10                                              ulation rise continues until
                                                                                swarming. (James and
                                                                                Carol Gould, The Honey
                                 0                                              Bee, p. 27.)
                                     Winter   Spring Summer   Autumn

arises: How do the bees take such an important decision? Did they all as-
semble together to work out this strategy? Or did they, by chance, dis-
cover that it was a good strategy and somehow understand that it was
necessary and decide to continue with it?
own accord. They have no decision-making mechanisms, nor the con-
sciousness with which to outline a strategy and then put it into action.
might lead to the queen’s spermatheca not being filled sufficiently, and
and do no work.
                                 Harun Yahya                              79

   The Special Characteristics of the Drones, Mating and
anatomical features superior to those of the hive’s female workers and the
powerful than those of the workers.
   Careful inspection shows that the males, with their very different fea-
bees in the hive.
   The fact that every living thing pos-
sesses the features necessary for it is
just one of the indications of the flaw-       Is it other than the re-
less order in the universe. Such an            ligion of God that you
order absolutely cannot have come              desire, when every-
about by chance. It is God Who creates         thing in the heavens
all living things, together with the char-
                                               and earth, willingly or
acteristics essential to them. This order
                                               unwillingly, submits
that prevails throughout the entire uni-
                                               to Him and to Him
verse is just one of the proofs of God’s
limitless creative artistry.                   you will be returned?
                                               (Surah Al ‘Imran: 83)

                                 Adnan Oktar
80                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

     The Male Bees’ Inevitable End
workers’ behavior towards the males changes completely. Although the
workers look after the males very carefully during the mating period,
them. If the males try to eat anything, the workers seize them in their pow-
erful mouths and drag them by their antennae or legs to the hive entrance
and throw them out.
ability to find food for themselves. Therefore, they make determined ef-
forts to re-enter the hive. Yet again they face the bites and poisoned stings
the males should long since have undergone an evolutionary process that
embarking on mating flights that will lead to their deaths.
                                      Harun Yahya                                        81

    the worker bees as soon as they complete that task.


                                      Adnan Oktar
82                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

     Population Planning in the Hive
     Thanks to the special organization within the hive, the thousands of fe-
male bees in it occupy themselves with work inside and outside the hive,
the winter. It is essential that the hive get through the winter. More indi-
vidual bees would necessitate a larger stock of food, for which more hon-
eycombs would need to be produced
and therefore, a greater communal ef-
                                                   Among His signs is
fort made. Moreover, the drones are
                                                    the creation of the
larger than the females and taking care
                                                    heavens and earth
of them is even harder work.
     When necessary, if their food stocks
                                                  and all the creatures
are insufficient, the bees do not stop at         He has spread about
killing off all the males. They can also          in them. And He has
destroy the eggs and larvae to reduce              the power to gather
the numbers in the colony.                        them together when-
     As the bees carry out their popula-          ever He wills. (Surat
tion planning in the hive they can                    ash-Shura: 29)
gradually, and in a controlled manner,
eliminate new individuals at the larval and pupal stages. It has been ob-
served that this method reduces the population by one-fifth.71
things with the greatest wisdom. The task of intelligent people is to con-
sider these living creatures and draw the obvious conclusions.

        cientists have performed a great deal of research to determine
        how the order is maintained in the hive, in which tens of thou-
        sands of bees live. A large number of academic studies have been
University of Munich, the Australian zoologist Karl von Frisch, has devot-
ed an entire 350-page book to bee communication, The Dance Language and
Orientation of Bees.

               How Do Bees Communicate?
                To find food, bees must usually search wide areas and fly
           long distances. When a bee finds a new source of food, it imme-
   diately returns to the hive to inform the other members of the colony.
Shortly afterwards, other bees begin flying around the source.
   Bees are deaf, and cannot therefore establish communications by
methods they employ are quite extraordinary.
   Scientists studying how bees inform each other of the places they find
made a most astonishing discovery. Bees “describe” the location of a dis-
tant place by dancing. All the information that other bees need to find the
food source—its distance from the hive, its direction, productivity—is en-
coded in this dance.
repeating specific movements in such a way as to attract the other bees’ at-
tention. All the information they need about the food source can be ob-
tained from the bee’s general behavior. For instance, if a bee simply
dance to describe the location of water.73

                                 Adnan Oktar
86                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

     The Bee Dance
the food source.
minutes, consists of up to 20 reversals and is followed by another ex-
change of nectar between the dancer and the bees in the nest.
food source within five minutes.74
                The bees perform their dances on the vertical comb, in the
                   darkness of the hive—most important in helping us bet-
                     ter understand bees’ flawless abilities to communicate.
                     In the pitch dark, bees give the other workers around
                      them all the information they could possibly need
                              about the food source. Although their move-
                                 ments on the combs are performed in
                                   darkness, they are still correctly per-
                                   ceived by their fellows and immediately
                                    followed up.
                                        In the same way that bees perform a
                                     round dance for food sources within 15

                                    Karl von Frisch has spent his entire life studying
                                    bees and won a Nobel Prize for his research on
                                    that subject.
                                    Harun Yahya                                     87

   When bees return from a
   food source, they dance on
   the comb. To the side can be
   seen a bee performing the
   dance when the food source
   is nearby. The bee makes two
   semi-circular lines, then re-
   turns to the starting point.

   provide information about the distance of the food source.

known as the “figure-eight dance,” to notify other bees of the distance, di-
rection and quality of food sources further than 100 meters (330 feet) from
their hive.
also shake their abdomens. The form of this characteristic movement
straight line for a short distance, moving its body from side to side ap-

                                    Adnan Oktar
 88                         THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE


 proximately 13 to 15 times a second.
      By varying the angle between the waggling run and an imaginary line
 another line which connects the hive and the spot on the horizon immedi-
 ately below the sun, then the angle formed by the two is observed to be the
 bees are able to triangulate.75
      Throughout the oscillatory movement in the waggle dance, the bee’s
 straight line, the bee turns in one direction and makes a semi-circular re-
 turn to her starting point. She then moves forward again in a straight line,
 making a semi-circular return in the exact opposite direction. As with the
 round dance, the waggle dance ends with the dancer stopping and dis-
 tributing food from its honey stomach to the workers around it. The bees
 watching the dance may sometimes produce a sound lasting from a tenth
 same way.
                                        Harun Yahya                                          89

         Food source

                                            Food source


          Food source

1- If the food source lies exactly in the direction of the Sun, or in the exact opposite direc-
ward direction in its waggling run, it signals that the food source lies in the direction to-
ward the Sun. And if it heads straight
downwards, this means that the source lies in the
exact opposite direction from the Sun.

run increases for more distant
    Throughout the dance, the other
bees crowd around the one “dancing
this description” and follow its every
move. They also touch its waggling
abdomen with their antennae. This
movement is most important, because
                                                      Bees watch the dancing bee in their midst,
they perceive the vibrations produced
                                                      then find the food source by following the
by the dancer and thus establish the                  directions given.

                                        Adnan Oktar
90                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

(820 feet), for instance, the bee will shake its abdomen 5 times in 30 sec-
onds. It has been observed that by means of these dances, bees are able to
(5 to 6 miles).
the bee performing the dance.
at the source is directly proportionate to the number of bees performing
the dance. If a single bee performs it, the whole hive does not go into ac-

                                                 No two figure-eight dances are the
                                                 same. To the side can be seen the di-
                                                 rection of the great many dances
                                                 performed when the food source is
                                                 80 degrees to the left of the Sun.
                                                 The triangles formed by the bees as
                                                 they dance show the direction of the
                                                 clockwise dances, and the circles,
                                                 that of the counter-clockwise

                                                                       Forager bees need not fly in
                                                                               a direct straight line
                                                                                     to a food
                                                                                      source in
             Hive                          Route taken by                              order to be
                                          subsequent bees                             able to tell its
                                                                                     location. In the
                                                                           shown at the side, Karl
                                                                   von Frisch had bees fly around a
                                                                   building between them and the
                                                                   food source. Yet the bees still
                             Interrupted lines                     managed to describe the loca-
                               indicating the
                                                                   tion on a straight line, shown in
                                direct route
                                                  Food source
                                                                   the diagram with interrupted
                    Route taken by the                             lines, and the other bees fol-
                    foragers                                       lowed a straight line to find it.
                                        Harun Yahya                                        91

the right, with wagging movements.

tion. First, a group of scouts leaves the hive. If that group also performs
the dance on their return, then more bees head towards the target. The bet-
ter the food source they find, the longer they dance and the more bees fol-
low them. In this way the food gatherers’ attention is always focused on
the most productive source.
dance—but they do so unwillingly, and for a shorter time. This is also re-
flected to the other bees in the hive, and those bees that gathered around
   Consider that the honeybees that perform the dance are just a few cen-
timeters long, the same insects you encounter when you go outside, walk
in your garden or sits out on a balcony. There’s an interesting contradic-
tion here. People regard honeybees as ordinary, familiar insects, yet the
phenomena we have seen so far can only be carried out with a very defi-

                                        Adnan Oktar
    Food source                                 Hive
                                                         An experiment was per-
                                                         formed to show that bees
                                                         make use of surface shapes
                                                         to recognize their sur-
                                                         roundings. First, bees were
                                                         introduced to the food
                                                         source shown in the top
                                                         left-hand corner. Then as
                                                         soon as they left the hive
                                                         for the source indicated,
                                                         they were caught, brought
                                                         to the point at bottom
                                                         right, and released there.
                                                         Even though the food
                                                         source was not directly
                                                         visible, the bees were able
                                                         to head in the right direc-
                                                         tion, toward the food
                         Point where the bees            source.
                             are released

nite consciousness. Were you to ask human beings to give the same direc-
tions that the bee does by dancing, they would be nowhere near as suc-
cessful. That’s because although human beings possess reason and
consciousness, they lack the ability to perform such minute calculations
without technical measuring equipment.
living on it for tens of millions of years.
flawlessly created honeybees and taught them such conscious behavior.
of our Lord.
     To fully comprehend the significance of the description that bees make
                                   Harun Yahya                                       93

Animal Consciousness, the evolutionist author Marian Stamp Dawkins dis-
cusses how the bees give these directions:
   about which direction they should fly in the horizontal plane.78
In other words, the information about which direction they must take
   In her book, Dawkins continues:

                                                                   Food source

                                                       One species of honeybee,
                                                       known as the dwarf honeybee,
                                                       always constructs its hives in
                                                       the open. When they find a
                                                       food source, they generally
                                                       dance on top of the nest cov-
                                                       ered with bees (left). These
                                                       bees perform the figure-eight
                                                       dance to point to the food
                                                       source directly. If for any rea-
                                                       son they dance on the sides or
                                                       rear of the hive, they redirect
                                                       their dances again to indicate
                                                       the direction of the source.
94                        THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

     eventually be taken relative to the sun) into a direction relative to gravity in-
     side the hive and the other bees retranslate this back into instructions relative
     to the sun when they get outside. So if the food is to be found by flying direct-
     run precisely vertically on the comb, whereas if the food is to be found by fly-
     for angle with respect to the sun and conveys, in the darkness of the hive, in-
     formation to her companions as to the direction they should fly when they get
     out into the sunlight.79
calculating angles.
     The fact that they do this [calculating angles] correctly shows that bees do in-
     deed convey information to each other.80
this as bees conveying information to each other. However, there are im-
portant questions that require an answer. How did bees discover this
a reference?
     Obviously, bees cannot calculate planes and angles and other such
sophisticated attributes.
Direction of the
            Sun                                                          Bees describe the location
                                                                         of the food source on the
                                                                         comb’s vertical plane. Yet
                                Direction of the food                    as the picture to the side
                                source                                   shows, the destination lies
                                                                         on the horizontal plane.
                                                                         Nonetheless, the bees fully
                                 Hive                                    understand the directions
                                                                         given and reach the source
                                                                         by calculating the neces-
                                                                         sary angles. The inspiration
                                                                         of God is the source of this
                                                                         astonishing ability.

                   Direction of the

                                       Direction of the food

                                                       Forager bee performing
                                                       the figure-eight dance

                                                       Bees gathering to touch the
                                                       forager performing the fig-
                                                          ure-eight dance

                                  Figure-eight dance
                                                  Solar rays

                                                    Solar rays

                                                                               The Sun

                            Bees use ultraviolet rays to find their way in cloudy weath-
                            er. These light rays can penetrate the cloud cover so long
                            that moment.

   How Do Bees Find Their Way in Cloudy Weather?
   As bees fly towards their food source, they observe the Sun. This is es-
sential if the scout bees are to make use of the angle and direction indicat-
ed in the dance.
establish the location of the Sun. The natural light from the Sun is polar-
ized, in other words, the direction of vibrations of the light waves changes
bees to survive.
                           BEES' MEMORIES

   t has been established that after      mained in the hive.
   watching the dance of a forager,
                                          The boat was then pulled to the
   the other bees in the hive do not
                                          shore. A number of bees again found
immediately set off in flight. First
                                          it, returned to the hive and began
they analyze the information provid-
                                          dancing. This time, the other bees
ed in the dance and decide whether
                                          left the hive and headed for the boat.
to act upon it.
In one experiment, a small boat was       From this, the scientists concluded
anchored in the middle of a lake near     that bees were aware of their sur-
a hive, and food was placed in it. The    roundings and knew there was a lake
bees eventually discovered this food,     there. Since there could be no food
immediately returned to the hive and      source for them in the lake, they ig-
danced to tell their fellows of the di-   nored the first bees’ “mistaken”
rection and location of the food          dance.
source. But even though they danced
for a long while, the other bees disre-    James and Carol Gould, The Animal Mind,
garded their information and re-                                           p. 106.

98                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

     The Directions Given by Bees are Totally Accurate
leave the hive and head off for the target. However, bees also face an im-
portant problem: The angle that the dancer gave to her sisters is based on
the Sun. Yet the Sun is not fixed in the sky, but changes position by 1 de-
gree every 4 minutes. If a bee followed the original line, it would never be
able to locate its target, due to the shift in the Sun’s position. Every 4 min-
utes will bring a margin of error of 1 degree, which will reach uncor-
rectable dimensions over a long journey.
216 meters, or 708 feet a minute.82
     But what if the target is more than 4 minutes away?
follows the direction given by the original dancing bee, then it will be de-
flected from the food source as the Sun
changes position. In returning to the hive, a
bee that has traveled a distance of 10 kilome-        He to Whom the
ters bears in mind the position of the food           kingdom of the
source in relation to that of the Sun.                heavens and the
Moreover, since this bee is carrying food, it         earth belongs. He
must      travel    more     slowly,    at     9
                                                      does not have a son
kilometers/hour (5.6 miles/hour).           That
                                                      and He has no part-
means that during the bee’s return, the Sun
                                                      ner in the Kingdom.
will have moved 16.5 degrees. Therefore, the
                                                      He created every-
bee’s directions relative to the Sun may pos-
                                                      thing and deter-
sibly be wrong. Add the 16.5-degree discrep-
ancy of the bee performing the dance to the
                                                      mined it most
11-degree margin of error of the bee setting          exactly. (Surat al-
out, and the bee may end up 27.5 degrees              Furqan: 2)
away from the food source.
                                 Harun Yahya                               99

strength also evaporates. If they’re unable to reach nectar, they’ll be un-
able to return from a lack of energy.
been understanding the directions given to them by their sisters—despite
the movement of the Sun and the changing angles. Bees experience no dif-
ficulties in finding sources of food, indicating that they make no mistakes
in calculating the angle with respect to the Sun. To express this in mathe-
matical terms, the bees calculate that the Sun moves 1 degree every 4 min-
utes. As a result, they’re able to keep the food source’s exact location in
mind and to “describe” it to other bees. Other bees calculate the angle ac-
cording to the changed position of the Sun, understand those directions
given, and locate the food source in question.
   A careful re-reading of the preceding paragraph will show the extraor-
dinary nature of these directions given by bees. It will be useful to consid-
er those words not with their usual familiarity, but one by one, imagining
this, perform a precisely accurate mathematical calculation, accurate to
of reason and logic. Someone who maintains that bees learned such a cal-
culation by themselves during some alleged “process of evolution” must
would have grave doubts about the sanity of anyone who did.

                                 Adnan Oktar
                       HOW BEES CALCULATE

Various experiments have been car-        were able to find the strength to set
ried out regarding how bees, when         out only by reinforcement with sugar
they set off to look for food, take a     water and honey (3-4). The reason
small quantity of it with them. In one    why bees take only enough food to
experiment, bees who found a bowl         permit them to reach the source is so
containing sugar water at a specific      that they can carry more pollen and
distance returned to the hive (1) and     nectar on their return.
described its location. The first group
of bees who set out brought food
back from the source.

Then the scientists conducting the ex-            Moody Science Classic, City of the
periment placed the bowl slightly far-             Bees, Moody Video: A Ministry of
                                                Moody Bible Institute, 820 N. LaSalle
ther away. The second group to arrive
                                                Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60610-3284.
were unable to find food at the loca-
tion indicated, and were unable to re-
turn from a lack of energy (2). They




                                      Harun Yahya                                       101

   How Did Bees Learn to Calculate?
movements of the Earth and Sun, to know the consequences, and act ac-
cordingly. It’s out of the question for bees to be getting these calculations
right every time by sheer chance. Nevertheless, all scientists who have re-
searched the subject agree that bees have indeed been performing these
calculations with complete accuracy for millions of years.
   How could these extraordinary abilities have come about? How did
bees learn to perform these calculations?
shelter—and thus, for their very survival.
supporting the theory of evolution find themselves faced with the very
difficult question of how bees’ communication abilities came into exis-
tence. Richard Dawkins, one of the leading contemporary evolutionists, is
attempts to provide an answer in these faltering terms:
   provided the necessary . . . . We have found a plausible series of graded inter-
   mediates by which the modern bee dance could have been evolved from sim-
   something a bit like it surely did happen. 85

                                      Adnan Oktar
102                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

      Making use of the Sun to calculate angles is an ability that cannot be ac-
quired by chance. However, it’s not enough for bees to learn to dance or to
be able to calculate angles; they also need the other bees to be able to un-
derstand them. Bearing this in mind, you can see how totally nonsensical
wait, it’s quite impossible for any creature to form such a calculating abil-
ity of its own accord.
have seen throughout, its every action reveals an incomparable intelli-
gence and consciousness. As with every aspect of the universe, this intelli-
gence and consciousness that manifest themselves in bees actually belong
to God, the flawless Creator of all.

               The Bees’ Eye
                   When scientists realized that bees make use of the Sun,
             the bee’s eye was examined, and was found to possess a struc-
ture that allows these calculations to be performed.
three are used to measure the strength of the light. The bee’s eye is superi-
or to the human eye in two respects: it can see ultraviolet light and per-
ceive the plane of light polarization.87
                                           Harun Yahya                           103

   To the right, a cross-section of the
      bee’s eye. The ommatidia (small
       eyes) can clearly be seen in the
     form of long lines. Each can per-
  form the function of a separate eye
    and stand parallel like straws in a
         jar. Each of these eyes faces a
      slightly different direction from
    the others. Below, a cross-section
          of one of these components.

                           Retinal cells


                                       eye               Lens            At the far left, the
                                                                         bee’s head, with a
                                                         Cone            single ommatidia to
                                                                         the side. On the out-
                                                                         side of each of these
                                                         Retinal cells   is a transparent, con-
                                                                         vex lens. As well as
                                                                         the compound eyes
                                                                         on either side of
                                                         Rhabdomere      their heads, bees also
                                                                         have three simple
                                                                         eyes, or ocelli (far

                                                         Nerve cells
104                          THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                                                           The bee’s eye is created to per-
                                                           ceive ultraviolet rays. In this
                                                           way, ultraviolet light reflected
                                                           from the petals of flowers give
                                                           flying bees the full coordinates
                                                           of the pollen.

 Thanks to the special structure in
      their eyes, bees setting out in
search of food can easily make out
  the flowers before them, just like
    the lights of an airport runway

through the sky.

               Flower-Marking Methods
                   Before the foraging bees return to the hive, they deposit a
             special scent on their food source. Every worker has a scent
            gland in its body, which it can use at will. This gland, which is lo-
cated at the rear of the bee, under normal circumstances is invisible from
      Thanks to the way in which bees mark flowers, other bees can recog-
nize that most of the nectar has been drawn from a particular flower as
                                   Harun Yahya                            105

 wasting time and energy.

     Flower Fertilization and Bees
 something very interesting may catch your attention. A bee always moves
 kinds of flower as it flies from one to another.
     Bees sometimes spend days visiting flowers of the same species, which
 a considerable time in order to find a single drop of nectar. But after land-
 ing on the same kind of flower five or six times, the bee begins to gain
 species permits rapid and efficient fertilization. Pollen from
 one flower cannot fertilize other species, and
 flowers are fertilized only by the bees
 traveling between the mem-
 bers of the same species.
 Bees make use of scent in
 order to find flowers of
 the same species.
     At this point, it will be
 useful to touch on the sub-
 ject of how fertilization takes
 place. As we know, bees

Bees leave a scent on flowers
  they have visited previously
 and from which they’ve col-
 lected nectar or pollen. This
way, subsequent bees do not
    waste time and energy on
         “harvested” flowers.
                                 Harun Yahya                              107

seeds, a flower’s female reproductive organ has to unite with male ga-
metes, enclosed in pollen grains. In other words, a quantity of pollen must
unite with the stigma—the sticky tip of the female organ. Flowers are gen-
erally unable to transport pollen in their male stamens onto their own stig-
mas. The requisite union takes place thanks to insects, thus forming the
seeds that will form new plants and new flowers.89
bees. Both have been created by God to complement one another. For ex-
ample, flowers, which need to be fertilized by insects, produce nectar
   This relationship between bees and flowers is also exceedingly impor-
tant for us humans, because beekeeping is of great importance to agricul-
ture. A great many fruit trees and crops are fertilized by bees to a large
extent. For that reason, some experts regard bees’ contribution in this re-
gard as more important than their production of honey. In the light of this,
   Your Lord revealed to the bees: “Build dwellings in the
   mountains and the trees, and also in the struc-
108                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

      tures which men erect. Then eat from every kind of fruit and travel the
      inside them comes a drink of varying colors, containing healing for hu-
      Nahl: 68-69)
numbers, industriousness and the suitability of their bodies, bees can
vegetables produced.

      Harmony Between Bees and Flowers
      Though bees play a most important role in flower fertilization, there
are some flowers that they cannot pollinate. For example, since bees can-
not distinguish the color red, they are unable to seek out—and pollinate—
of flower have other characteristics that also prevent their being pollinat-

                                                BOMBUS BEES
                                                Bombus bees play a major role in plant
                                                fertilization. As can be seen at the side,
                                                the tiny hairs on the body of the Bombus,
                                                larger than other bees, are covered in mi-
                                                croscopic hooks. These make it easy for
                                                the bee to collect individual pollen grains
                                                as it visits flowers. The Bombus then
                                                stores the pollen by emptying it into the
                                                pollen baskets.

                                                                     David Attenborough,
                                                                   The Trials of Life, p. 58.
 There is no creature on the Earth which
is not dependent upon God for its provi-
sion. He knows where it lives and where
   it dies. They are all in a Clear Book.
               (Surah Hud: 6)
110                           THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

ed by bees. These species’ nectar lies deep down in the flower. Insects
seeking to pollinate these flowers must possess special organs in order to
also be able to see the color red. In other words, the insects that will polli-
nate these flowers need to
possess both a special
organ to allow them to
reach      down        into    the
depths of the flower, and
eyes that can perceive the
color red. In nature, only
two species of insect can
perceive the color red—
wasps and butterflies, and
moreover, both these in-
sects possess a long pro-
boscis with which they
can reach down into the
deepest        parts     of    the
      It’s of course meaning-
less to try to account for
such harmony in terms of
blind chance. No random
coincidence can give two
different species of living
thing physical properties
so mutually compatible.
This harmony proves that
both were created by a sin-
gle Creator: God created
both to be mutually com-
patible.                             God has created a harmonious union between bees and
                    THE BUCKET ORCHID AND BEES

One example of the harmony be-            two living things, plant and insect, is
tween insects and flowers is that be-     proof that they are both created by
tween bees and the bucket orchids.        our Almighty Lord.
The plant secretes a liquid that drips
into the orchid’s bucket. A bee drawn
                                                               Natural History,
by the fragrance of the flower falls                     March 1999, pp. 72-74.
into the slippery part of the flower
that contains the liquid. The bee has
only one way out: a narrow tunnel,
with pollen on its entrance. As the
bee strives to escape, the pollen rubs
off and sticks to its back. Shortly af-
terward, it escapes out of the trap
and goes to another orchid, leaving
behind some of the pollen stuck to its
back, thus fertilizing the flower. The
bee also acquires an aromatic sub-
stance with which to attract female
bees. The harmony between these

                                                                   Upper wall
                                                                   of flower

       calyx leaf

      Narrow                                                  Intermediate sec-
      tunnel                                                  tion

   . . . [God is] the Lord of the East and the West and
everything between them. . . . (Surat ash-Shu‘ara’: 28)

           s already mentioned, from early spring on, the queen lays 1,500
soon lead to congestion and malfunctioning.
level of that “queen substance” to each worker must thus decrease. The re-
duction in the quantity of this substance indicates that the time has come
either the hive has to be expanded, or else the population has to be re-
duced. Bees implement the most appropriate of these two options.
Expanding their accommodations is no answer, because the problem
stems from the insufficiency of the queen mandibular pheromone, rather
equilibrium in the hive will be damaged.
   The population-planning method implemented in beehives is the most
place to settle.
a brand-new colony.

                                 Adnan Oktar
114                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

      Preparations Before the Bees Set off on Their Journey
               The first phase of swarming comes at the beginning of spring,
ready by early April.92 It’s worth noting that the cells for the males are pre-
pared before the queen’s mandibular pheromone is entirely exhausted.
That’s because under normal circumstances, the workers need to prepare
for the males, either the queen will fail to mate, or the process will be de-
layed. Since the queen cannot start laying eggs until after she mates, this
will represent a threat to the colony.
time to migrate has come and necessary preparations must be made.
be too bulky.
mobile as the other bees.93
                                         Harun Yahya                                      115

      Beginning the Search for a New Hive
  in late spring or early summer. In this season, pollen and nectar are plenti-
  ful, temperatures warm and the Sun in the sky longer. These conditions
  provide the necessary environment for a bee community to leave the old
      In order to store energy before departure, the bees setting out to estab-
  lish a new colony fill their stomachs with as much honey as they can, be-
  cause they will have no time to visit flowers. As a result of this feeding,
  their abdomens expand so much that their bodies lose the elasticity neces-
  sary to use their stings.94 This means that the bees are exceptionally peace-
  able—important for the safety of human beings. Bearing in mind that
  about half the colony will leave during swarming, an obvious danger
  would otherwise be posed by 20,000 to 30,000 aggressive bees.


                                         Adnan Oktar
116                    THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

which it can use for marking flowers whenever it wishes. This gland is ex-
ternally invisible when not in use. Yet the bee can expose it when it wants,

                                  mass will disperse.
                                       Harun Yahya                              117

                                                                The pictures to the side
                                                                show a swarm regulating
                                                                the temperature of the
                                                                mass. Under cooler con-
                                                                ditions, the workers
                                                                clump together tightly
                                                                and provide less internal
                                                                ventilation, in order to
                                                                conserve heat (far left).
                                                                Under warmer condi-
                                                                tions, they spread out in
      300                                                       order to cool down the
            250   190
                                                                center of the clump.

      Scout Bees in Action
      While one part of the colony waits in a mass, the scout bees are very ac-
tive. Indeed, they have begun their preparations long before. A few days
before leaving the hive, these scouts have spread out in search of new set-
tlement sites. On occasion they fly for several kilometers.98
      The scouts carefully examine the fissures and tree trunks in which they
locations for the colony and literally carry out settlement planning, make
leading it to the new site.
feet). In his experiment, using artificial cylindrical hives capable of revolv-
ing around their own axes, Seeley revealed how far bees had to walk to ex-
amine the interior of the hive, and that in this way, they calculated the
volumes of dimly illuminated cavities.99

                                       Adnan Oktar
118                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                                            among the potential sites by vis-
                                            iting each one, reducing them to
                                            two or three. Eventually, agree-
                                            ment is reached on which site
                                            will be best, and the new hive is
                                            established there. The colony
                                            thus selects the best possible
                                            site—at least, according to the
                                            scout bees’ evaluations.
                                               The decision-making process
                                            over the site of the new hive may
                                            last for several days. Each scout
                                            inspects each potential site very
                                            carefully, and it takes time for up
Bees swarming
                                            to 500 workers to compare dif-
                                            ferent alternatives and agree on
on their final leg of the journey.
      To understand the importance of what the scout bees do, let us re-ex-
amine the stages of this process, one by one. First, how do the scouts de-
cide on the suitability of the new site they find?
to the suitability of the entrance. It must be small enough to prevent rob-
ber bees, squirrels and birds from getting in, yet wide enough for bees re-
turning laden with nectar or pollen to enter. Otherwise, these bees will
                                                         Harun Yahya                                                        119

Day 1,1:35 to 3:00             Day 2, 12:00          Day 3, 11:00              Day 4, 9:30 to 9:45     12:30 to 1:00          1:00 to 2:00
                                 to 5:00              to 12:00                                         10:45 rain

                                                                                    7                        7                        15

   2:00 to 3:00                       3:00 to 4:00              4:00 to 5:00                Day 5, 7:30 to             9:00 to 9:40

                                              30                    61                                                        Journey to
             7                                                                                57                       26
                     3500 meters                                                                                              the new
                     (2.17 miles)                                                                                             nest


         arise if the hive is too narrow will be more serious. If the area used for stor-
         ing honey is too small, insufficient quantities can be laid by for the win-
         ter—a severe problem that could lead to the death of the entire colony.101
              Another detail concerns which direction the hive’s entrance faces. A

                                                        Adnan Oktar
  Your Lord r evealed to the bees: “Build
 dwellings in the mountains and the tr ees,
and also in the structur es which men er ect.”
             Surat an-Nahl: 68)

                                                north-facing entrance will be colder,
                                                thus unsuitable for a shelter. The
                                                scouts also bear this important de-
                                                tail in mind when looking for a new
                                                    Once they identify the site and
                                                decide on its suitability, scouts mark
                                                it with their scent, just as they do
                                                with flowers. The bees expose their
These pictures show bees which           scent glands and remain in the hive site for
have arrived at a joint decision and     a while, thus allowing it to take on the
constructed their nest in tree trunks.
                                         scent of the colony.103

       The Colony Goes into Action
   them, and provide directions for them by dancing—the same dance per-
   formed by bees when they locate a food source. The direction of the site
   they perform the dance less enthusiastically.104
   several bees dancing at one time, and these groups will sometimes indi-
   cate different directions.105
   receives the largest number of bees, which in turn accumulates the great-
   est amount of colony odor at that site.106
       Within one week, the hanging cluster of bees like a bunch of grapes dis-

                                         Adnan Oktar
122                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                                                                The scout bees dance to indi-
                                                                cate the distance and direc-
                                                                   tion of the possible
                                                                          locations for the new
                                                                            nest. Each arrow rep-
                                                                            resents the dances in
                                                                        the direction of a partic-
                                                                      ular site. The length of the
                                                                       arrow indicates how dis-
                                                                      tant the site is, the angle
                                                                    its direction, and the thick-
                                                                  ness the number of scouts
                                                                 that have danced for that re-
                                                             The drawing at the far left shows
                                                           the dances performed in four di-
                                                        rections before unanimity was
                                            The drawing to the side shows the dance per-
                           formed right before departure for the new nest.

perses and the bees fly off en masse towards the new site. When the
community will return to where it had been before.107
bees, we need to stop and consider.
      How do these creatures manage to carry out such wide-ranging plan-
ning? These are not steps that unintelligent, and unaware creatures could
                                 Harun Yahya                                  123

                                                                      If bees are un-
                                                                      able to find a
                                                                      suitable site,
                                                                      they make a
                                                                      hive in a tree.
                                                                      The picture to
                                                                      the side shows
                                                                      the combs
                                                                      constructed in
                                                                      the open air,
                                                                      exposed to all
                                                                      kinds of dan-

not, of course, possess these attributes. It is God, with His infinite knowl-
edge, Who causes them to exhibit this conscious behavior and signs of in-
telligence. As He does all other creatures, God protects and watches over
Hud: 56).

   What Happens in the Old Hive?
   Once the swarm has left, half or maybe more of the original bees re-
main in the old hive.
after swarming, one of the young queens completes her development and

                                 Adnan Oktar
124                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

new queen will then sting her to death.
      In order to prevent such chaos, which would damage the hive’s equi-
librium, the bees resort to a most astonishing method. The potential
queens which have completed their development and bitten through their
the workers will later feed them.
thus taken, which allow for every possibility.
event, that is, if the new young queen is to leave the hive with an en-
tourage of workers for a second swarm, the workers immediately begin
raising another new queen.110


in the animal kingdom. The honeycombs they build are architectural mar-
vels, which they produce with such patience with wax drops no larger
than a pinhead. They pay hundreds of visits to the larvae every day, tire-
lessly. They display self-sacrifice in defending the hive, and the work that
goes into making honey and the discipline they are able to maintain
within the hive all amaze scientists.
   Bees analyze their surroundings in their own language, take decisions
them. In short, all their behavior displays a definite intelligence and con-
sciousness, as we have seen in a number of examples. As have been em-
phasized several times in this book, however, this consciousness and
intelligence are not actually their own.
(Surat an-Nahl: 68), revealing that everything these creatures do, includ-
ing their conscious behavior, comes about by His inspiration and revela-

                                Adnan Oktar
The kingdom of the heavens and the Earth and everything in
         them belongs to God. He has power over all things.
                                     (Surat al-Ma’ida: 120)

           report in Byte, one of the world’s most popular computer maga-
           zines, contained very interesting information about honeybees.

   The magazine compared bees’ brains to computers! According to the
superior to the most highly advanced computer. Today’s most advanced
computers can compute 16 billion computations a second. The figure for
in performing all these computations. The energy consumed by 10 million
bees is the same as that used by a single 100 watt bulb. (The bee brain con-
sumes less than 10 microwatts of energy.)111
   As can be seen from this comparison, every organ in the bee’s body, in-
cluding its brain, has been specially created in order to perform the func-
tions it is engaged in at a given time. Its exoskeleton, for instance, is
exceedingly strong, and its respiratory system allows more oxygen to
possesses different characteristics in different sections of its body, depend-
ing upon requirements for movement. The wing muscles, for instance,
such tasks as gathering nectar.
The physical structure of bees is just one of the proofs of God’s incompa-
rable creative artistry and infinite knowledge. God reveals that His knowl-
edge pervades everything:
   things in His knowledge. (Surah Ta Ha: 98)
   This chapter will provide brief information about bees’ bodily systems.

                                  Adnan Oktar
                    Head                                                    Abdomen



                                             Pollen basket



             The Bee’s Exoskeleton
             Like other insects, bees have an ex-
          ternal skeleton consisting of a hard
          jointed shell, formed of a layer
          known as chitin. These layers                                                   Pollen
          have been created to be hard                                                    basket

          enough to form the external
          skeleton structure.112
             Other substances in the                                                          Proboscis
          skeleton are water, protein and

             The Respiratory System
             The bee’s respiratory system,
          known as the “tracheal system,”
          begins with external respiratory
          openings, or namely spiracles,
          in the bee’s body. The trachea arms widen to form air sacs that are large al-
          beit few in number, and used to store air. The small branches and tubes
                                  Harun Yahya                                  129

emerging from the sacs extend as far as the tissues.
Bees can accelerate the passage of air into their bod-
ies by contracting these sacs, which speeds up the
oxygenation of the tissues.113

   Muscular Structure
   Each muscle in the bee’s body consists of differ-
ent numbers of muscle fibers, consisting of longitu-                                  Trachea
dinal cells. To fulfill its functions, every living cell
                                                                                      Air sac
requires energy. The mitochondria provide this for
muscles need to have the property of contraction—
a need met by structures known as myofibrils,
found in large quantities in the fluid of the muscle
fibers and which do indeed possess contractibility.          The vascular system
                                                            consists of breathing
   Myofibrils consist of proteins and contain              holes that allow air to
strings of large, oval mitochondria. The cytoplasm            enter and leave the
                                                               worker’s body and
of the muscle fibers fills with glycogen, that the bee      main trachea and air
uses as a store of energy.                                  sacs which carry the
                                                           air into and out of the
   The myofibrils in bees’ fast-moving wings are                             cells.
2.5 to 3 μm (micrometer) across.114 These minute
structures allow the honeybee to beat its wings 250
   The structure of the muscles allowing the bee to move changes accord-
ing to their area of use. For example, those muscles like the wing muscles
that must move very quickly lack the external membrane of the other
muscles, in order to admit the requisite oxygen. In addition, the bee’s en-
tire body is equipped with tracheal tubes to carry the oxygen that its body

                                  Adnan Oktar
   130                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                                      (hamuli) which link the hindwings and the forewings during
          A                            flight.
                                         B- Chest muscles that provide most of the power during
                                          flight. Contracting the longitudinal muscles and relaxing
                                              the vertical muscles extends the chest upwards and
                                                  pulls the wings down. Relaxing the longitudinal
                                                    muscles and contracting the vertical muscles
                                                       works in the opposite way, turning the chest
                                                         out and pulling the wings up. It is this
                                                         anatomical structure that allows bees to fly
muscles                                                  much better than a great many other insects.
                    Vertical mus-


         The Wing Structure
   is better suited to the laws of aerodynamics. If these wings acted sepa-
   rately, they would be useless for flight. Yet thanks to the special structure
   of their wings, bees can move faster than a great many other flying crea-
   fore- and hindwings are left independent again.117

         The Olfactory System
                                                      Antennal flagellum                       Pedicle

insects’ scent-receptors lie not in their                                                      Scape

respiratory openings.) Yet these sensory
nerves do not make direct contact with
the substance being smelled since in-
sects’ bodies, including their antennae,
                                                    Magnified view of one
are covered in a shell of chitin.
                                                  of the pore plates on the
   Under a microscope, the bee’s anten-               worker bee’s antenna
nae can be seen to have a large number of
pore plates. The olfactory nerves from its                                         Receptor
brain terminate at these plates, which are
covered in a special membrane that helps                                              Nerve
protect the nerve endings. Yet these are
still able to detect scents. The area be-
tween the pore plates is covered with                                      The seven types of sensory
sensory tiny hairs.118                                                 d
                                                                            structures on the antennae:
                                                                            a. Small thick-walled hair
                                                                            b. Thick-walled peg
                                                                           c. Slender thin-walled peg
   The Taste System                               b
                                                                           d. Large thin-walled peg
   Bees’ taste organs, in their mouth cav-                                 e. Pore plate
                                                  c                    g   f. Pit organ
ities and proboscis, enable them to dis-                                   g. Pit organ
tinguish sweet, sour, bitter and salty
deceive bees with artificial sweeteners: A bee can immediately tell the dif-
ference between these and real sugar, and will refuse to take water con-
taining the former. Because bees use the nectar they collect to make honey,

                                    Adnan Oktar
        between them, the Almighty, the Endlessly Forgiving.

                                              (Surah Sâd: 66)

           ne of the most amazing distinctions about bees is the hexago-
           nal comb cells they make. Watching a large group of bees
           building honeycombs, one assumes that the end result must be
to be acting independently of one another, could ever produce such im-
posing structures. Contrary to appearances, however, bees work together
few rows of pollen between the larval chambers and those used for
becoming mixed up in the near-total darkness of the hive. Honey and lar-
vae being kept separate is very definitely most of all to humans’ benefit,
otherwise bee-keepers would face an irresoluble problem: Seeking to sep-
arate one part of the honeycomb in their efforts to extract the honey would
the honey would also make it far less palatable.
   Again, conscious behavior permits this separation. In appearance,
honey—they are all identical. But despite this resemblance, as we have al-
ready seen, the queen never makes the mistake of laying her eggs in

                                Adnan Oktar
134                        THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

for the new queens are built at the very bottom.
                                   Harun Yahya                                    135


           What Do Evolutionists Think about the Construction
           of the Combs?
            Like all other living things, honeybees have their own unique
and the communication among bees, simply because it is impossible to ac-
count for bees’ social lives and attributes in terms of evolutionary mecha-
difficult to explain the behavior of bees and ants, known as “social in-
sects” because of the way they live in colonies, in terms of the mechanisms
of his theory. In one question he asks in The Origin of Species, Darwin em-
phasizes the inconsistency of the theory he originated with regard to in-
   Can instincts be acquired and modified through natural selection? What shall
   we say to the instinct which leads the bee to make cells, and which has practi-
   cally anticipated the discoveries of profound mathematicians? 121

   The Comb’s General Structure
             If one divides a comb down the
           middle, a most interesting vista
             opens up. The comb has a parti-
           tion wall that, like the other parts
    of the comb, is made from wax and
forms a common foundation for the mir-
ror-image cells on both sides. The common
floor of the cells is not level, but a series of
depressions are made to fit into each other
in order to save space. The side walls of              There is a most regular structure in the
                                                    combs, so that the honey and larvae never
                                                                        become intermingled.

                                  Adnan Oktar
136                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

incline prevents honey flowing out of filled cells.122
number, are lower down. The queen cells are constructed at the very low-
est level. All these brood cells are constructed according to need. For ex-
ample, when the number of males in the hive drops, or at the end of
      In the construction of the combs, there are a great many other im-
portant details such as the mathematical calculations re-
quired during the production and use of the raw
material for the comb—all quite astonishing.
                                  Harun Yahya                               137

   The First Stage in Comb Construction: Wax Production
   Beeswax is the main building material
in the comb. Bees secrete wax from four
pairs of glands under their abdomens.
Where these glands meet, there are two
small apertures. Here the wax is secreted,
in small, thin scales. To collect this wax,
bees use the hooks made of the small
hairs on their hindlegs. They then push
the wax forward to their middle legs,
then to their forelegs. (Bees have six legs.)
Finally, they pick the wax up in their
mouths and make it malleable by chew-
ing it.123 As soon as one scale of wax is re-
                                                The wax emerges as plates in the
moved, another immediately emerges                            apertures above.
behind it.
   In the secretion of wax, heat is the
35 degrees centigrade (95oF) temperature necessary for beeswax to be-
come malleable is thus ensured, and thus it becomes a pliable substance
suited to construction.
   Beeswax is white when first secreted. After pollen and other materials
are mixed into it, the color turns yellow and brown. The chemical ingredi-
ents of beeswax are as follows:124
   Hydrocarbon . . . 14%
   Monoesters . . . 35%
   Diesters . . . 14%
   Hydroxy-polyesters . . . 8%
   Free acids . . . 12%
   The process of wax production necessitates substantial quantities of

                                  Adnan Oktar
                                       Harun Yahya                                        139

consuming honey. The German scientist N. Koeniger researched this sub-
ject and found a colony which was abandoning its old hive to establish a
Koeniger observed them chewing up the wax from the old hive and carry-
ing it off to the new one. The reason for this determined behavior is that so
much of the bee’s energy goes into wax production.126
   Bees use their wax in a most economical way to build the most honey-
comb with the least possible amount of wax. For example, it has been cal-
culated that bees use only 40 grams (1.4 ounce) of wax to make a comb

   How Did Beeswax Come into Existence?
proof of creation.
   Evolutionists maintain that bees didn’t possess this attribute at the
time they first came into existence, and that all their attributes and behav-
iors came into being gradually, as the result of a series of coincidences. It
asking a number of questions that demand answers.
consists of a substance completely unknown to them?
   How is it that every single bee has been able to employ the same for-

Left: Honeybees beginning construction work. In order to obtain the necessary tempera-
hexagonal cells.
140                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

mula for millions of years?
      How did bees manage to form the glands and organs necessary to pro-
duce such an ideal material as beeswax within their own bodies?
      Assume for a moment that bees somehow managed to generate
beeswax, the raw material for their combs. But that success has no mean-
ing in isolation, because at the same time, the bee must also possess all the
technical knowledge and competence for the construction work it will
transmit this information and system of production to subsequent genera-
and competence to construct combs; they also need the conscious intelli-
gence with which to establish the requisite organization. Such questions

                                        Producing wax is a rather difficult, laborious
                                        process. Honeybees extract it from their wax
                                        glands in pieces no larger than a pinhead. The
                                        photos show bees making honeycombs.
                                 Harun Yahya                                141

as how bees carry out that organization—and how communication is es-
tablished among them and how it is that no confusion ever emerges
among the tens of thousands of bees in the dark hive—still need to be an-
   All rational people need to employ their conscience and ponder the
for making combs, and using these in the most advantageous manner, en-
tirely by chance. This extraordinary construction ability is compatible nei-
and consciousness.
Could a person possessing reason and intelligence create a new secretion
that would be of benefit, in his own body, of his own will? Could he, for in-
stance, design a new system that allows the saliva glands inside his body
to produce glue? Everyone realizes that such a feat is quite out of the ques-
tion. Is it therefore reasonable to expect a bee to be able to do what human
beings cannot?
physical structures and miraculous abilities in bees clearly prove that they
life in the light of His commands:
   Say: “Who provides for you out of heaven and Earth? Who controls hear-
   ing and sight? Who brings forth the living from the dead and the dead

                                 Adnan Oktar
142                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

      How are the Dimensions of the Identical Cells
Comprising the Comb Established?
      The construction of the comb is a miracle all by itself. The combs con-
sist of identical, exceptionally regular hexagonal cells, and offer yet an-
other indication of the superior intelligence manifested in bees.
      Bees begin constructing a comb from the top and work downwards
towards both sides and joins to the other two rows. This work is per-
formed in such a harmonious and regular manner, in fact, that it is impos-
sible to tell where the three different parts join together. The pieces of the
comb built from separate starting points are so regular that, despite con-
sisting of hundreds of cells and having hundreds of angles, they look like
about this task randomly, but calculate the distances between their start-
ing and end points beforehand. The width of the cells for honey, pollen
to 0.25 inch).128
sensitive receptor hairs (sensilla trichodea), which are concentrated
single bee’s antenna, there are about 8,500 sensilla trichodea and some
of the cell walls she makes. In making these calculations, she behaves ex-
ceedingly carefully. A bee adding wax to a cell constantly pushes the wall,
determining its elasticity and thickness according to its movement. As a
result of all these processes, a miraculous situation transpires. The thick-
and deviates from this by only 0.002 millimeter (two-thousandths of a mil-
                     bees start from different points, making separate series of cells.
 If all the trees on
Earth were pens and
  all the sea, with
  seven more seas
 besides, was ink,
 God’s words still
 would not run dry.
 God is Almighty,
(Surah Luqman: 27)
144                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

            Right: A worker bee manipulating wax and
            building cells
            Below: A section from a nearly complete
            comb and the bees working on it

      The way the comb cells
are joined together is
also of great interest.
Bees start on the next
one even before they
have finished building one
cell. Construction of new ad-
joining cells begins lower
down while the lateral walls of the first cells are being added. As con-
struction of the comb continues, new bees also become involved in this
process. Interestingly, every bee that takes part in subsequent comb build-
ing immediately realizes what stage the construction has already reached,
and knows where to begin.
bees complete the process, hardening the wax with another regurgitated
liquid. This leads to the completion of the combs’ identical, flawless hexa-
gons. However, the number of
cells constructed by bees is
very large. For example, in
order to store 9.9 kilogram (22
pounds) of honey, bees need
to build a comb of 35,000
      As can be seen from all this
information so far, there is a
literal perfection in the comb,
                                   Harun Yahya                                   145


   Bees’ Comb-Building is Incomparable
them. They were amazed by the calculations regarding such geometric
these terms:
   a thousand different variations of shape and thickness. You’re led to the con-
   clusion that every one of these thousands of insects in her own right must be a
   trained engineer.

   somehow get that perfect finished product.132
   The above statements are most thought-provoking. It is exceedingly
near-total darkness.

                                   Adnan Oktar
The picture above shows a comb made by honeybees out of
perfectly hexagonal cells. The illustrations on the next page are
three-dimensional computer images of honeycombs. In order to
computer programs capable of producing drawings by calculat-
ing the various angles. However, bees use no such equipment
in making their equally perfect combs. The importance of their
success becomes more apparent when we compare the picture
able to construct combs of this same perfection for millions of
years? Bees have no ability to calculate angles; neither have
they any knowledge of geometrical shapes. It is God, Who cre-
ated the entire universe, Who inspires in bees the knowledge
and ability with which they can build their combs.

brings the earth to life when it was dead and scatters about in it crea-
tures of every kind—and the varying direction of the winds, and the
clouds subservient between heaven and earth, there are signs for peo-
ple who use their intellect. (Surat al-Baqara: 164)
148                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

The drawing below
shows the back-to-
                                                     Moreover, the shapes we
back structure of                                  draw on paper are two-di-
the combs and the
                                                   mensional. Yet bees pro-
angles in them.
Every single one of                                duce    three-dimensional
the bees making a                                 hexagonal prisms. They per-
comb constructs
cells by calculating                           form very delicate calcula-
these angles.                                 tions during the construction
                                             of    these   three-dimensional
                                         prisms, as regards the walls’ thick-
                                       ness and elasticity. In addition, since
                                     the comb has two faces, there is a prob-
                                    lem of joining the cells on both sides at
                                   the bottom. Furthermore, all the cells are
                                   built at an incline of 13 degrees in order to
                                   keep the honey from flowing out.133
                                   Beyond all this—as we have shown—the
                                   comb’s structure forms through the
                             bringing together of separate components. In
comb sections produced in different areas. The hexagons at the intersec-
tions are not half-formed or of different dimensions, so no problem
they have been joined together.
bees can engage in the work.
                                  Harun Yahya                               149


   Bees’ Unbelievable Calculations
   To better understand the miraculous nature of what bees do, imagine
one of the bricks and filling in the gap.
same way as bees.
succeed if you simply go about the task randomly. Several preliminary
steps will be necessary for success, including:
   - You have to get a tape measure and mea-
sure the length of the line.                            The kingdom of the
   - You must then measure the length of one           heavens and the earth
of the bricks.                                             and everything
   - You must divide the length of the line by             between them
that of one brick. If the length of the line is not     belongs to God. He
an exact multiple of that of the brick, then the        creates whatever He
result you obtain will not be a whole number.          wills. God has power
   - That portion of the number following after        over all things. (Surat
the decimal point is of the greatest importance,            al-Ma’ida: 17)

                                  Adnan Oktar
150                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

bricks at the ends must not exceed 0.25. You can make the necessary ad-
justment according to whatever figure you obtain.
should fit perfectly—that is, of course, as long as you’ve done all the cal-
culations correctly!
      This analogy shows that for a human, success is possible only by carry-
ing out a number of calculations and using various pieces of measuring
more complicated than those in our example of the bricks, and which em-
ploy no measuring equipment at all.
with a 0.74 cubic millimeter brain and weighing between 80 and 100 mil-
ligrams (0.00017 and 0.00022 of a pound).134 In addition, they perform cal-
culations of which only human beings are capable, and manage
mathematical feats that even we humans would sometimes find difficult,
and measurements as they build their honeycombs, which they accom-
plish by acting in complete harmony together.
each other, the rows of cells will be slightly out of line and it will be im-
                                     Harun Yahya                                 151

possible to join them together. And if the middle group of bees allows
their part of the comb to slip slightly to the left or right, then it will be un-
able to join up properly with those on the left and right.
will be gaps on either side of it.
each one were a construction engineer.

   Could You Make a Regular Comb Using Just a Pencil?
   Perform a simple experiment to examine the task that bees perform
hexagons are irregular. Most importantly, do this without using such
equipment as a compass and set square, and without making any calcula-
tions. You will find this very difficult, if not impossible. Imagine three or
you can see how difficult the task really is.
again. Yet bees have no such similar opportunity. They make their honey-
combs in one go, making no mistakes at all.
to make equally perfect hexagons and then join these together to produce
have been constructing since they first came into existence do not end

                                     Adnan Oktar
   152                         THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

         Angles in the Honeycomb
         In constructing their cells, bees need to bear in mind three separate an-
         - The internal angles of each comb cell.
         - The upward angle of the cell from the horizontal.
         - The angles of the equilateral rhombs in the cell’s base.
         Bees construct their
   cells     by   perfectly
   maintaining the
   necessary 120o in-
   ternal angles in the
   hexagons. During con-
   struction, another point to
   which bees pay careful at-
   tention is the angle of tilt of

It is impossible for a human being
to draw regular hexagons with a
pencil and then to join them to-
gether without leaving any traces.
Yet bees have been doing exactly
this, in three dimensions, for mil-
lions of years.
                                  Harun Yahya                                 153

the bees who won.

   A Victory for Bees over Scientists: Perfect Tilt Calculation
cells are joined to the cells on the other side at the base. Yet the joinings be-
tween the two series of comb cells are a particular marvel of engineering.
   The first noticeable feature in this design is the three equilateral
opposite side of the comb. This mutually interconnected structure gives
the honeycomb maximum resilience. Just like riveted steel clamps, the
   Scientists examining the honeycomb’s flawless structure have been
amazed at the mathematical calculations performed in such a way that the
bases of three cells form the base of a single cell facing in the opposite di-
rection. This is a design which requires the most complicated mathemati-
cal foresight.
   Scientists performing this calculation in a way simi-
lar to what bees must do revealed the very sensitive an-
gles needed to achieve these qualities. According to a
calculation by the well-known mathematician Konig,
the angles at the base must be 109 degrees 26 minutes
and 70 degrees 34 minutes for the most perfect struc-
                                                                   Viewed from above, a
   What angles do the bees use? Observations have                 comb’s cell can be seen
shown that in the construction of the honeycomb, they                to be made from a
                                                                   combination of three
use two exact angles: 109 degrees 28 minutes and 70 de-             equilateral rhombs.

                           Adnan Oktar
When three comb cells, whose bases consist of equilateral rhombs, are joined to-
these rhombs made by the bees are literally perfect and flawless.

grees 32 minutes, and that they never deviate from these.
This is quite unbelievable! Bees succeed in resolving a
mathematical calculation beyond the reach of all but an ex-
    However, the calculation performed by bees exhibits a deviation of
1/30th of a degree. (One degree consists of 60 minutes. The 2-minute dif-
so small as to be insignificant.
thought that bees were unable to achieve a perfect result and only ap-
proached the exact angle, allowing themselves a margin of error. But the
fact is, bees actually make no error at all!
    The famous Scottish mathematician Colin Maclaurin (1698-1746) re-
peated the same calculation, and when he announced his result, it stunned
error in the logarithmic tables they had used.
    In short, it was realized that there is not the slightest error in the hon-
not by bees.
                               Harun Yahya                            155

   Why the Hexagon?
   As we have seen, honeycombs are based on calculations so delicate
that most human beings cannot manage them, and that these features
make them architectural marvels that amaze scientists.
   Scientists researching the structure of the honeycomb carried out de-
tailed studies on the question of why bees did not construct them ran-
domly, or else in an octagonal, pentagonal or triangular form rather than
the hexagonal.

                 ABOUT THE HONEYBEE?

                                                         of the exis-
                                                         tence of God,
                                                         Who created
                                                         the universe
Darwin was stung into si-
                                                         and all life
lence by these little crea-
                                                         forms   flaw-
tures, asking, “What shall
we say concerning the
That bees make their cells in per-
fect hexagonal forms, sparrows
build their nests with straw
(left), beavers build dams (right),       G. Mansfield, “Creation or
and rabbits dig burrows in the          Change? God’s purpose with
ground, are all proofs of God’s       mankind proved by the wonder
creation of separate species.                of the universe,” Logos
Such animals behaviors are signs                        Publications
                                                                  When hexagonal
                                                                  cells and cells in
                                                                  other geometric
                                                                  shapes are com-
                                                                  pared, it appears
                                                                  the hexagonal
                                                                  cells have an obvi-
                                                                  ous advantage in
                                                                  terms of utiliza-
                                                                  tion of area per
                                                                  unit volume. The
                                                                  hexagon can store
                                                                  the largest volume
                                                                  with the least
                                                                  amount of con-
                                                                  struction material.

                           world’s most respected authorities on bees, an-
                              swers this question in these terms:
                                If the cells were round or, say octagonal or pen-
                                  tagonal, there would be empty spaces between
                                    them. This would not only mean a poor uti-
                                      lization of space; it would also compel the
                                     bees to build separate walls for all or part of
                                   each cell, and entail a great waste of material.
                                 These difficulties are avoided by the use of tri-
                               angles, squares, and hexagons. Provided their
                             depth was the same, such cells would therefore hold
                           the same volume. But of the three geometrical figures
   course, that the amount of building material required for cells of the same ca-
   pacity is the least in the hexagonal construction, and hence that such a pattern
   is the most economical design for warehouses. 137
hexagon?” Yet the question which really needs answering is how bees dis-
covered it. Common sense is enough to deduce that this flawless structure
could not have been developed by bees during any imaginary process of
  Praise be to God, to Whom everything in
  Praise be to God, to Whom everything in
  the heavens and everything in the earth
  the heavens and everything in the earth
    belongs, and praise be to Him in the
    belongs, and praise be to Him in the
               (Surah Saba’: 1)
               (Surah Saba’: 1)
158                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

claim such a thing is to suggest that bees possess as much reason and con-
sciousness as human beings. Neither reason nor conscience permit such a
claim to be believed.
      Bees were created by God. They underwent no evolutionary process.
they had exactly the same features as they possess now.

production, they succeed at every one.
around 7,000 neurons. A human being has some 2 million times that num-
ber.138 Yet as we have seen in some considerable detail, bees are able to
carry out all these tasks to perfection:
the larvae, cleaning, air conditioning, maintenance and repair.
      -They are able to distinguish between friendly and hostile bees.
      -They are able to perceive ultraviolet rays.
      -They are able to carry out in-flight corrections to their course by look-
ing at the brightness of the sky and landmarks and perceiving odors along
their route.
      -They can measure the frequency of the movements in the dance per-
formed in the hive and thus calculate the distance of the food source.
                                 Harun Yahya                                159

accurately calculate the angle between the Sun and the food source.
   -They are able to build exceptionally regular hexagonal comb cells.
   However, regarding these creatures which are capable of performing
millimeters. The conclusion that emerges from all these statistics is that
   Who gave bees all these extraordinary characteristics? How did these
creatures, which can perform calculations impossible for human beings
to perform such unbelievable tasks, without the benefit of any special
training? How are these unthinking creatures able to establish such an or-
ganizational structure? Moreover, how is it that they all fulfill their duties
within such a communal order? The organization among them is so per-
fect that it can only be the work of a superior intelligence.
and incomparable creation. A person who witnesses this creation must
   a Straight Path. (Surah Hud: 56)

                                 Adnan Oktar
 . . . From the contents of their bellies, from between the
               drinkers to swallow. (Surat an-Nahl: 66)

         y making honey, bees have served humanity since very ancient
         times. Beekeeping goes as far back as 3500 BCE.141

   The Production of Honey
needs for protein.
   The nectar a bee collects from flowers and swallows undergoes a chem-
ical change in its honey stomach, where it becomes a heavy, sugary liquid
and seal with a wax cover. The honey acquires its familiar taste and con-
sistency in the comb, thanks to the special air-conditioning provided by
the bees.142
from the flowers totally depends upon the sugar concentration of the nec-
tar brought to the hive. In the apple blossom, for instance, there is little
into honey.143
grams of pure honey.144
   Although this job is most demanding, bees create many times more

                                Adnan Oktar
162                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                  HOW DO BEES FEED IN WINTER?

      Bees store honey for use in             Beekeepers remove from
      winter. The amount of honey          the hive only a portion of the
      to be produced depends on            honey-filled combs, because
      the flower sources. Even if          the bees will need some of
      they collect enough honey            the honey to consume during
      for the needs of the colony a        the winter. If bee-keepers do
      month before the flowers             take away most of the honey,
      fade, they still do not neglect      they feed the bees with sugar
      to gather more nectar, and           water during the winter. The
      try to store as much honey as        only exception is in the very
      possible, even if it requires to     coldest days, when sugar
      increase the volume of the           water is not enough. At these
      comb.                                times, the bees must be given

beings’ benefit.

      The Contents of Honey
      The reason for honey’s sweet taste, the first characteristic that comes to
mind, is the three different sugars in honey: dextrose (34%), sucrose (2%)
and levulose or fructose (40%).
      In addition, 17% of honey is water. The remaining 7% consists of iron,
lime, sodium, sulphur, magnesium, phosphorus, pollen, manganese, alu-
minum, calcium, copper, albumen, dextrine, nitrogen, and traces of other
substances besides protein and acids. It is this 7% of the mixture that de-
termines the quality of the honey.145
      There is one very important difference between honey and the ordi-
nary cane sugar with which we are all familiar. Sugar enters the blood-
stream only after undergoing changes in the digestive system, while
  . . . From inside them
    comes a drink of
     varying colors,
containing healing for
  humanity. There is
certainly a sign in that
for people who reflect.
   (Surat an-Nahl: 69)
164                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

honey can enter it immediately, with no need to be digested first. In short,
honey is a food that has been specially created in such a way that human
beings can benefit from it at the highest level and in the most rapid man-
ner. It has been established that honey mixed with warm water supplies
energy to the body in a matter of minutes.

      Health-Giving Properties of Honey
      With the vitamins and minerals it contains, and with its other charac-
teristics, honey is a healthy food, as is emphasized in the Qur’an:
      easy for you to follow.” From inside them comes a drink of varying col-
      ors, containing healing for mankind. There is certainly a sign in that for
      One of honey’s most important features is that it harbors no bacteria.
Honey’s high sugar content is great for absorbing moisture, which makes
it difficult for bacteria to survive. Another blow for microorganisms is
propolis, which is found in the nectar of some honey and can actually kill
      For this reason, not only does honey not harbor bacteria, but it can be
used as an anti-bacterial. For example, it has been established that the bac-
terium MRSA, which is resistant to antibiotics, is not resistant to honey.147
      Using only honey, Dr. W. Sackett destroyed all the typhoid fever germs
in 48 hours. Dysentery germs died within 10 hours.148
      As can be seen from the above, honey is a most powerful health-giving
food. This feature, only recently established for certain, was mentioned in
the Qur’an 1,400 years ago. There is no doubt that this is one of the mira-
cles revealed in the Qur’an by Almighty God.
      Along with its minerals, sugars and many vitamins, honey also contains
small quantities of various hormones, zinc, copper and iodine. The next
page displays a chemical analysis of the contents of 100 grams of honey.
                                 Harun Yahya                                  165

 NUTRIENT                                 Average amount in 100 grams
                                          of honey
 Energy                                       304.0 kilocalories
 Water                                        17.1 gram
 Carbohydrates (total)                        82.4 gram
 Fructose                                     38.5 gram
 Glucose                                      31.0 gram
 Maltose                                      7.20 gram
 Sucrose                                      1.50 gram
 Proteins, amino acids,
 vitamins and minerals (total)               0.50 g
 Thiamine                                    <0.006 milligram
 Riboflavin                                  < 0.06 milligram
 Niacin                                      < 0.36 milligram
 Pantothenic acid                            < 0.11 milligram
 Pyridoxine (B6)                             < 0.32 milligram
 Ascorbic acid (C)                           2.2-2.4 milligram
 Calcium                                     4.4-9.20 milligram
 Copper                                      0.003-0.10 milligram
 Iron                                        0.06-1.5 milligram
 Magnesium                                   1.2-3.50 milligram
 Manganese                                   0.02-0.4 milligram
 Phosphorus                                  1.9-6.30 milligram
 Potassium                                   13.2-16.8 milligram
 Sodium                                      0.0-7.60 milligram
 Zinc                                        0.03-0.4 milligram
 Acid (particularly gluconic acid)           0.57 % (0.17-1.17 %)
 Protein                                     0.266 %
 Nitrogen                                    0.043 %
 Amino acids                                 0.05-0.1 %


  A Matchless Food: Bee Pollen
  As already stated, bees do not directly use the pollen they collect from
flowers, but turn it into another product known as “bee pollen.” This

                                 Adnan Oktar
166                          THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

transformation is carried out by adding nectar and various enzymes to the
pollens collected.
      This product made by bees contains every nutrient we humans need.
Bee pollen consists of 25% vegetable protein. (18 amino-acids, of which 8
are basic amino-acids.) It also contains more than another dozen vitamins,
28 minerals, 11 enzymes and helper enzymes and 11 carbohydrates. This
makes bee pollen far more than just another food.
      Ever since the 1950s, there has been a lot of research on bee pollen, re-
vealing—among other things—that it contains antibiotic substances effec-
tive against colon bacillius and some strains of Salmonella (a genus of
bacteria), as well as providing nutritional and metabolic benefits.149
      Nutritionist Dr. Paavo Airola is full of praise for bee pollen:
      Multi-source bee pollen is the richest and most complete food in nature. It in-
      creases the body’s resistance to stress and disease and also speeds up the heal-
      ing process in most conditions of ill health . . . .150
      The Russians have also attached great importance to the properties of
bee pollen. Dr. Naum Petrovich Joirich, chief scientist at the Longevity
Academy in Vladivostock, says:
      Bee pollen is one of the original treasure houses of nutrition and medicine.
      Each grain contains every important substance necessary to life.151
      The enhancement of physical performance has also been linked to bee
pollen. Carlson Wade in his book Bee Pollen and Your Health and Lynda
Lyngheim and Jack Scagnetti in their book Bee Pollen also refer to the way
that this substance has strengthened athletes.152

      Royal Jelly
      Since royal jelly contains some very complex and as-yet undefined
compounds, it has been impossible to manufacture it artificially. It is rich
in natural hormones, minerals, Vitamin B, folic acid, fatty acids, acetyl-
choline (the lack of which in the body causes Parkinson’s disease,
Alzheimer’s and other diseases of the nervous system), amino-acids, pro-
teins, fats and carbohydrates. It also contains aspartic acid, which plays an
                                 Harun Yahya                                167

important role in the renewal and growth of soft tissues in the body.
   Royal jelly possesses antibacterial, antiviral, nutritional and anti-aging
properties, helping with cell renewal as people grow older. In addition, it
also benefits the respiratory, skeletal, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular,
immune and cellular systems. It also stimulates hormone balance, regu-
lates and normalizes hormonal and metabolic functions. Along with treat-
ing skin problems, it also protects skin color.
   It helps the body regain strength in the wake of chronic fatigue, serious
illnesses, operations and trauma, and also raises energy levels. It lowers
cholesterol and fat levels and helps prevent hardening of the arteries.
Research has also indicated that royal jelly is useful in protecting the liver,
building bone and muscle, supporting bone growth and health, strength-
ening the memory, weight stabilization and the treatment of injuries.
   Doctors in Germany carrying out research in a number of fields used
royal jelly to feed malnourished and premature babies. Improvements in
the weight and health of babies fed on royal jelly were observed.
   In addition, it has been observed that patients with nervous and psy-
chological problems given royal jelly achieved a normal weight, more re-
sistant nervous systems and stronger physical and mental structures.
   Doctors also advise the use of royal jelly to delay the effects of aging
and menopause, to relieve malnourishment and illnesses such as joint in-
fections, diseases of the arteries, peptic ulcers and liver problems, as well
as for general health.153

                                 Adnan Oktar
Don’t you see that everyone in the heavens and everyone on the
                                           (Surat al-Hajj: 18)

         hroughout this book, we have examined a great many features of
         honeybees and answered the question of how the bees’ perfect
         systems, their intelligent behavior, and such abilities as calcula-
tion, planning and construction came into being. We have also shown in
some detail how the mechanisms proposed by evolutionists are invalid by
citing examples from the life cycle of bees and the mechanisms they pos-
sess. Most important of all, a truth has again been revealed that everyone
who uses common sense can clearly see.
   In order to perceive this truth, let us try to find the answer to the ques-
tion of how the first bee lived. Let us also see that it is impossible for evo-
lutionists to provide a consistent answer on this subject.
   As we know, evolutionists maintain that all living things are de-
scended from one single ancestor as the result of chance. In fact, this claim
enough, she also needs a male to fertilize her.
that the queen starts laying eggs after being fertilized. But the queen can-
not make honeycombs, since she lacks that particular ability. She cannot
lay her eggs just anywhere, because the larvae that hatch out cannot sur-
vive unprotected. Neither can the queen provide food for the larval bees,
will die soon after they hatch.

                                  Adnan Oktar
He [God] is Lord of the heavens and the earth and every-
thing in between them, so worship Him and persevere in
                  (Surah Maryam: 65)
                                 Harun Yahya                               171

into being by chance and then to survive. That being the case, evolution-
ary scenarios based on chance have absolutely no validity. In other words,
the characteristics of only one single living thing are enough to invalidate
the theory of evolution. Merely the examples cited above definitely
demonstrate that all three castes of honeybees—the workers that are capa-
ble of performing so many tasks, the queen who ensures the continuation
that they were created by God. The manifest truth is this: Like all other liv-
ing things, God created honeybees together with all the attributes they
their own needs.
   From all the facts throughout this book, anyone possessed of reason
compassion for His servants. He is the sole Lord of all creatures and every-
thing in the heavens and Earth. Every feature possessed by living things is
a manifestation of His infinite wisdom and might.
   Earth, Lord of all the worlds. All greatness belongs to Him in the heav-

                                 Adnan Oktar

[God is] Lord of the heavens and the earth and everything
   between them, the Almighty, the Endlessly Forgiving.
                                           (Surah Sâd: 66)

            arwinism, in other words the theory of evolution, was put for-
            ward with the aim of denying the fact of creation, but is in truth
            nothing but failed, unscientific nonsense. This theory, which
claims that life emerged by chance from inanimate matter, was invali-
dated by the scientific evidence of miraculous order in the universe and in
of the scientific facts, biased interpretation, and lies and falsehoods dis-
guised as science.
Research carried out after the 1980s in particular has revealed that the
claims of Darwinism are totally unfounded, something that has been
leontology recognize the invalidity of Darwinism and employ the fact of
creation to account for the origin of life.
   We have examined the collapse of the theory of evolution and the
will be of great benefit to summarize it here.

   The Scientific Collapse of Darwinism
evolution was advanced extensively in the nineteenth century. The most
book, he denied that God created different living species on Earth sepa-
rately, for he claimed that all living beings had a common ancestor and

                                  Adnan Oktar
174                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

                         had diversified over time through small changes.
                           Darwin's theory was not based on any concrete
                             scientific finding; as he also accepted, it was just
                              an "assumption." Moreover, as Darwin con-
                               fessed in the long chapter of his book titled
                                "Difficulties on Theory," the theory failed in
                                the face of many critical questions.
                                   Darwin invested all of his hopes in new
                               scientific discoveries, which he expected to
                              solve these difficulties. However, contrary to
                            his expectations, scientific findings expanded the
                         dimensions of these difficulties. The defeat of
       Charles Darwin     Darwinism in the face of science can be reviewed
                          under three basic topics:
      1) The theory cannot explain how life originated on Earth.
      2) No scientific finding shows that the "evolutionary mechanisms" pro-
posed by the theory have any evolutionary power at all.
      In this section, we will examine these three basic points in general out-

      The First Insurmountable Step: The Origin of Life
      The theory of evolution posits that all living species evolved from a sin-
gle living cell that emerged on the primitive Earth 3.8 billion years ago.
However, first and foremost, we need to ask: How did this "first cell" orig-
      Since the theory of evolution denies creation and any kind of supernat-
ural intervention, it maintains that the "first cell" originated coincidentally
                                    Harun Yahya                             175

According to the theory, inanimate matter must have produced a living
the most unassailable rules of biology.

   "Life Comes From Life"
understanding of science in his time rested on the assumption that living
beings had a very simple structure. Since medieval times, spontaneous
living organisms, had been widely accepted. It was commonly believed
Interesting experiments were conducted to prove this theory. Some wheat
originate from it after a while.
   Similarly, maggots developing in rotting meat was assumed to be evi-
dence of spontaneous generation. However, it was later understood that
                                   Even when Darwin wrote The Origin of
                                   Species, the belief that bacteria could come
                                     into existence from non-living matter
                                       was widely accepted in the world of
                                           However, five years after the pub-
                                        lication of Darwin's book, Louis
                                        Pasteur announced his results after
                                       long studies and experiments, that dis-
                                     proved spontaneous generation, a cor-
                                    nerstone of Darwin's theory. In his
                             triumphal lecture at the Sorbonne in 1864,
            Louis Pasteur              Pasteur said: "Never will the doctrine

                                    Adnan Oktar
176                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

of spontaneous generation recover from the
mortal blow struck by this simple experi-
      For a long time, advocates of the theory
of evolution resisted these findings.
However, as the development of science
unraveled the complex structure of the cell
of a living being, the idea that life could
come into being coincidentally faced an even
greater impasse.
                                                                Alexander Oparin

      Inconclusive Efforts of the Twentieth Century
twentieth century was the renowned Russian biologist Alexander Oparin.
      most obscure point in the whole study of the evolution of organisms.155
      Evolutionist followers of Oparin tried to carry out experiments to solve
this problem. The best known experiment was carried out by the
American chemist Stanley Miller in 1953. Combining the gases he alleged
molecules (amino acids) present in the structure of proteins.
      Barely a few years had passed before it was revealed that this experi-
ment, which was then presented as an important step in the name of evo-
lution, was invalid, for the atmosphere used in the experiment was very
different from the real Earth conditions.156
      After a long silence, Miller confessed that the atmosphere medium he
used was unrealistic.157
      All the evolutionists' efforts throughout the twentieth century to ex-
                                  Harun Yahya                               177

the San Diego Scripps Institute
accepts this fact in an article pub-
lished in Earth magazine in 1998:
   Today as we leave the twentieth
   century, we still face the biggest
   unsolved problem that we had
   when we entered the twentieth
   century: How did life originate
                                                   Stanley Miller
   on Earth?158

   The Complex Structure of Life
isms deemed to be the simplest have incredibly complex structures. The
practical terms.
stores genetic information, is an incredible databank. If the information
ing of an estimated 900 volumes of encyclopedias consisting of 500 pages
the synthesis of these enzymes can be realized only by the information

                                  Adnan Oktar
178                        THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

emerged spontaneously on what they refer to as the primitive earth, represented in the pic-
1970s proved that the atmosphere on what they describe as the primitive earth was totally
unsuited to life.

September 1994 issue of the Scientific American magazine:
      glance, one might have to conclude that life could never, in fact, have origi-

                     One of the facts nullifying the theory of evolution is the incredibly
                        complex structure of life. The DNA molecule, located in the nu-
                           cleus of cells of living beings, is a sort of databank formed of
                              the arrangement of four different molecules in different se-
                               quences. It contains the codes of all the physical traits of
                                 it is calculated that this would result in an encyclopedia
                                 made up of 900 volumes. Unquestionably, such extraordi-
                                    nary information definitively refutes the concept of co-
                                 Harun Yahya                              179

   nated by chemical means.159
purpose is to deny creation.

   Imaginary Mechanism of Evolution
   The second important point that negates Darwin's theory is that both
concepts put forward by the theory as "evolutionary mechanisms" were
understood to have, in reality, no evolutionary power.
   Darwin based his evolution allegation entirely on the mechanism of
   Natural selection holds that those living things that are stronger and
questionably, this mechanism will not cause deer to evolve and transform
themselves into another living species, for instance, horses.
   Therefore, the mechanism of natural selection has no evolutionary
The Origin of Species:
   Natural selection can do nothing until favourable individual differences or
   variations occur.160

   Lamarck's Impact
swer this question from the standpoint of the primitive understanding of
science at that time. According to the French biologist Chevalier de

                                 Adnan Oktar
180                        THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

  Lamarck believed that giraffes evolved from such animals as antelopes. In his view, the
  necks of these grass-eating animals gradually grew longer, and they eventually turned
  into giraffes. The laws of inheritance discovered by Mendel in 1865 proved that it was
  impossible for properties acquired during life to be handed on to subsequent genera-
  tions. Lamarck's giraffe fairy tale was thus consigned to the wastebin of history.

trees, their necks were extended from generation to generation.
formed themselves into whales over time.161
eth century, utterly demolished the legend that acquired traits were
favor as an evolutionary mechanism.
                                   Harun Yahya                                     181

   Neo-Darwinism and Mutations
the 1930s. Neo-Darwinism added mutations, which are distortions
formed in the genes of living beings due to such external factors as radia-
tion or replication errors, as the "cause of favorable variations" in addition
to natural mutation.
Darwinism. The theory maintains that millions of living beings formed as
contrary, they are always harmful.
Ranganathan explains this as follows:
                                       structure such as a building, there would
                                       be a random change in the framework of
                                       the building which, in all probability,

                                         Chance mutations, which evolutionists cla-
                                         im to develop living things, are always
                                         harmful to humans and all other living
                                         things. Not even one beneficial mutation
                                         has been observed so far. Quite the cont-
                                         rary, mutations always have harmful effects
                                         on living things as seen in this picture.

                                  Adnan Oktar
182                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

      would not be an improvement.162
nature. Since no evolutionary mechanism exists, no such any imaginary
process called "evolution" could have taken place.

      The Fossil Record: No Sign of Intermediate Forms
lution did not take place is the fossil record.
cessor. A previously existing species turned into something else over time
formation proceeds gradually over millions of years.
      Had this been the case, numerous intermediary species should have
existed and lived within this long transformation period.
                           Harun Yahya                                       183


                                                            150- to 100-milli-
                                                            on-year-old star-
                                                            fish fossil
                                                            (L. Cretaceous pe-

                                                     horseshoe crab from
                                                     the Ordovician period

                                                 200- to 150-million-year-
                                                 old dragonfly fossil from the
                                                 recent Jurassic period

                                                         150- to 100-million-
                                                         year-old fossil
                                                         shrimp from the L.
                                                         Cretaceous period

  Different groups of living things suddenly emerged with no similar
  ancestors behind them, and remained static for millions of years,
                    undergoing no changes at all.

                           Adnan Oktar
184                        THE MIRCALE OF THE HONEYBEE

  The theory of evolution claims that living species gradually evolved from one another.
  The fossil record, however, explicitly falsifies this claim. For example, in the Cambrian
  period, some 550 million years ago, tens of totally distinct living species emerged sud-
  denly. These living beings depicted in the above picture have very complex structures.
  This fact, referred to as the “Cambrian Explosion” in scientific literature is plain evi-
  dence of creation.

of Species, Darwin explained:
      Consequently, evidence of their former existence could be found only amongst
      fossil remains.163

      Darwin's Hopes Shattered
      However, although evolutionists have been making strenuous efforts
contrary to the evolutionists' expectations, show that life appeared on
                                   Harun Yahya                                   185

Earth all of a sudden and fully-formed.
even though he is an evolutionist:
   level of orders or of species, we find – over and over again – not gradual evo-
   lution, but the sudden explosion of one group at the expense of another.164
emerging suddenly and complete in every detail without any evolution-
known evolutionist biologist Douglas Futuyma:
   Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible explanations for
   the origin of living things. Organisms either appeared on the earth fully devel-
   oped or they did not. If they did not, they must have developed from pre-ex-
   isting species by some process of modification. If they did appear in a fully
   developed state, they must indeed have been created by some omnipotent in-
Darwin's supposition, is not evolution, but creation.

   The Tale of Human Evolution
   The subject most often brought up by advocates of the theory of evolu-
tion is the subject of the origin of man. The Darwinist claim holds that
some "transitional forms" between modern man and his ancestors are sup-
posed to have existed. According to this completely imaginary scenario,
four basic "categories" are listed:
   1. Australopithecus

                                  Adnan Oktar
186                       THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

      2. Homo habilis
      3. Homo erectus
      4. Homo sapiens
      Evolutionists     call   man's   so-called    first      ape-like   ancestors
Extensive research done on various Australopithecus specimens by two
an ordinary ape species that became extinct and bore no resemblance to
that is "man." According to their claim, the living beings in the Homo se-
ries are more developed than Australopithecus. Evolutionists devise a fan-
ciful evolution scheme by arranging different fossils of these creatures in
proved that there is an evolutionary relation between these different
classes. Ernst Mayr, one of the twentieth century's most important evolu-
tionists, contends in his book One Long Argument that "particularly histor-
ical [puzzles] such as the origin of life or of Homo sapiens, are extremely
                                                   difficult and may even resist
                                                   a final, satisfying explana-
                                                      By outlining the link

         FAL                                          Evolutionist newspapers and
                                                      magazines often print pictu-
                                                      res of primitive man. The
                                                      only available source for the-
                                                      se pictures is the imagination
                                                      of the artist. Evolutionary
                                                      theory has been so dented by
                                                      scientific data that today we
                                                      see less and less of it in the
                                                      serious press.
                                   Harun Yahya                              187

evolutionists imply that each of these species is one another's ancestor.
However, recent findings of paleoanthropologists have revealed that
the world at the same time.168
   Moreover, a certain segment of humans classified as Homo erectus
have lived up until very modern times. Homo sapiens neandarthalensis and
Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man) co-existed in the same region.169
   This situation apparently indicates the invalidity of the claim that they
are ancestors of one another. Stephen Jay Gould explained this deadlock
of the theory of evolution, although he was himself one of the leading ad-
vocates of evolution in the twentieth century:
   What has become of our ladder if there are three coexisting lineages of ho-
   minids (A. africanus, the robust australopithecines, and H. habilis), none
   tionary trends during their tenure on earth.170
pearing in the media and course books, that is, frankly, by means of pro-
paganda, is nothing but a tale with no scientific foundation.
   Lord Solly Zuckerman, one of the most famous and respected scientists
Australopithecus fossils for 15 years, finally concluded, despite being an
out from ape-like creatures to man.
   Zuckerman also made an interesting "spectrum of science" ranging
from those he considered scientific to those he considered unscientific.

                                  Adnan Oktar
188                        THE MIRCALE OF THE HONEYBEE

      We then move right off the register of objective truth into those fields of pre-
      sumed biological science, like extrasensory perception or the interpretation of
      and where the ardent believer [in evolution] is sometimes able to believe sev-
      eral contradictory things at the same time.171
      The tale of human evolution boils down to nothing but the prejudiced
interpretations of some fossils unearthed by certain people, who blindly
adhere to their theory.

      Darwinian Formula!
an example so simple as to be understood even by children:
evolutionists what they really claim without pronouncing loudly under
the name "Darwinian formula":
      Let evolutionists put plenty of materials present in the composition of
proteins—a single one of which has a formation probability of 1 over
10950—as they like. Let them expose these mixtures to as much heat and
                                 Harun Yahya                                 189

moisture as they like. Let them stir these with whatever technologically
developed device they like. Let them put the foremost scientists beside
these barrels. Let these experts wait in turn beside these barrels for bil-
lions, and even trillions of years. Let them be free to use all kinds of con-
ditions they believe to be necessary for a human's formation. No matter
what they do, they cannot produce from these barrels a human, say a pro-
fessor that examines his cell structure under the electron microscope.
roses, orchids, lilies, carnations, bananas, oranges, apples, dates, toma-
toes, melons, watermelons, figs, olives, grapes, peaches, peafowls, pheas-
ants, multicoloured butterflies, or millions of other living beings such as
   Briefly, unconscious atoms cannot form the cell by coming together.
croscope and then examine their own cell structure under that micro-
God's superior creation.
evolutionists discloses this reality, just as in the above example.

   Technology in the Eye and the Ear
   Another subject that remains unanswered by evolutionary theory is
the excellent quality of perception in the eye and the ear.

                                 Adnan Oktar
190                      THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

world in this pitch darkness.
developed television screen produced by the greatest television producer
thousands of engineers have been trying to achieve this sharpness.
difference in sharpness and distinction. Moreover, the TV screen shows
dimensional perspective with depth.
sion, there is a loss of image quality.
      Evolutionists claim that the mechanism producing this sharp and dis-
                                  Harun Yahya                                  191

sands of people cannot?
completely silent. Nevertheless, the sharpest sounds are perceived in the
brain measured by a precise device at that moment, complete silence
would be found to be prevailing there.
the products of the human body's technology are extremely sharp and

                                  Adnan Oktar
192                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

of man.
lies beyond all this.

      To Whom Does the Consciousness that Sees and
      Hears within the Brain Belong?
the twittering of birds, and smells the rose?
biochemistry books, you can find many details about how this image
comprised of matter, cannot answer these questions.
does not need the brain to think.
      Everyone who reads this explicit and scientific fact should ponder on
mensional, colored, shadowy, and luminous form.

      A Materialist Faith
evolution is incompatible with scientific findings. The theory's claim regard-
                                  Harun Yahya                                 193

ing the origin of life is inconsistent with science, the evolutionary mecha-
nisms it proposes have no evolutionary power, and fossils demonstrate that
been taken out of the agenda of science throughout history.
tack on science." Why?
   The reason is that this theory is an indispensable dogmatic belief for
some circles. These circles are blindly devoted to materialist philosophy
and adopt Darwinism because it is the only materialist explanation that
can be put forward to explain the workings of nature.
well-known geneticist and an outspoken evolutionist, Richard C.
a materialist and then a scientist":
   It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us ac-
   cept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that
   we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an appara-
   tus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations,
   These are explicit statements that Darwinism is a dogma kept alive just

                                  Adnan Oktar
194                     THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

God, Who created the whole universe from non-existence, designed it in
the most perfect form, and fashioned all living beings.

      The Theory of Evolution: The Most Potent Spell
      in the World
      Anyone free of prejudice and the influence of any particular ideology,
thinking, reasoning professors and university students; such scientists as
blindfolded. This is an even worse and unbelievable blindness than the
Sun, the tribe of Prophet Abraham (pbuh) worshipping idols they had
made with their own hands, or the people of Prophet Moses (pbuh) wor-
shipping the Golden Calf.
      In fact, God has pointed to this lack of reason in the Qur'an. In many
                                  Harun Yahya                              195

   unaware. (Surat al-A'raf: 179)
   Words cannot express just how astonishing it is that this spell should
living things full of countless complex systems.
   In fact, the Qur'an relates the incident of Prophet Moses (pbuh) and
Pharaoh to show that some people who support atheistic philosophies ac-
tually influence others by magic. When Pharaoh was told about the true
religion, he told Prophet Moses (pbuh) to meet with his own magicians.
When Prophet Moses (pbuh) did so, he told them to demonstrate their
abilities first. The verses continue:
   He said: "You throw." And when they threw, they cast a spell on the peo-
   ple's eyes and caused them to feel great fear of them. They produced an
   extremely powerful magic. (Surat al-A'raf: 116)
apart from Prophet Moses (pbuh) and those who believed in him.
forged," as the verse puts it:

                                  Adnan Oktar
196                        THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

entific disguise and spend their lives defending them, abandon their
superstitious beliefs, they also will be humiliated when the full truth
and philosopher Malcolm Muggeridge, who was an atheist defending
evolution for some 60 years, but who subsequently realized the truth, re-
veals the position in which the theory of evolution would find itself in the
near future in these terms:
      could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has.173
how they could ever have been taken in by it.

                          They said, "Glory be to You!
                         We have no knowledge except
                        what You have taught us. You are
                         the All-Knowing, the All-Wise."
                              (Surat al-Baqara, 32)
                                           Harun Yahya                                            197


1. Hayvanlar Ansiklopedisi (Encyclopedia of          (Encyclopedia of Animals—Insects), p.97
Animals), C.B.P.C. Publishing Ltd./Phoesbus          20. Karl von Frisch, Arilarin Hayati (The Life of
Publishing Company 1969/77, p.98                     Bees), p.75
2. Encyclopedia Americana, 1993, USA, Vol.3,         21. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
Int. Headquartes, Danbury Connecticut, p.439         Bee, p.96
3.    Encyclopedia      International,   Grolier     22. Ibid., p.85
Incorporated New York, Vol.2, p.473                  23. Karl von Frisch, Animal Architecture, A
4. Encyclopedia Americana, 1993, p.439               Helen and Kurt Wolff Book/Harcourt Brace
5. Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia, Vol. 2,          Jovanavich, Inc., New York and London, p.95
Compton&Company Chicago, 1961, USA,                  24. Ibid., p.94
p.106                                                25. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
6. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari,            Bee, p.100
Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of Life,      26. Ibid., pp.132-134
Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. II / Part-   27. Russel Freedman, How Animals Defend
II, 1992, Ankara, p.43                               Their Young?, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1978,
7. Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia, Vol.2,           p.63
p.108                                                28. Karl von Frisch, Arilarin Hayati (The Life of
8. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der Bienen,        Bees), pp.29-30
Verständliche Wissenschaft Band 1, 8.Auflage,        29. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
p.51                                                 Bee, p.58
9. Gordon R. Taylor, The Great Evolution             30. Karl von Frisch, Arilarin Hayati (The Life of
Mystery, Harper&Row Publishers, 1983, p.222          Bees), pp.36-37
10. Francis Darwin, The Life and Letters of          31. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
Charles Darwin, Vol. I, New York: D. Appleton        Bee, pp.25-26
and Company, 1888, p.374                             32. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari,
11. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, The       Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of Life,
Modern Library, New York, p.184                      Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. 2,
12. Francis Darwin, The Life and Letters of          p.677
Charles Darwin, Vol. II, From Charles Darwin to      33. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
C. Lyell.Down, June 6th [1860], New York: D.         Bee, pp.19-20
Appleton and Company, 1888, p.111                    34. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari,
13. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species,           Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of Life,
p.208.                                               Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. 2,
14. National Geographic Society, The Marvels         p.676
of Animal Behaviour, 1972, p.54.                     35. Karl von Frisch, Arilarin Hayati (The Life of
15. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey        Bees), pp.127-128
Bee, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard Unv.          36. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
Press, 5th ed., 1995, p.96                           Bee, pp.107-109
16. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey        37. Karl von Frisch, Animal Architecture, p.87
Bee, p.97                                            38. National Geographic Society, The Marvels
17. Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia, Vol.2,          of Animal Behaviour, pp.49-64
p.106                                                39. Ibid.
18. Ibid.                                            40. Murray Hoyt, The World of Bees, Coward
19. Hayvanlar Ansiklopedisi - Bocekler               Mcnann Inc, New York, 1965, p.146

                                           Adnan Oktar
198                          THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

41. C.D. Mitchener, The Social Behavior of          Publishing Ltd./Phoesbus Publishing Company,
Bees, 1974                                          Istanbul, 1979; p.97
42. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey       67. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der Bienen,
Bee, p.101                                          p.64
43. National Geographic Society, The Marvels of     68. Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia ,Vol.2,
Animal Behavior, pp.51-54                           p.108
44. Thomas A.Sebeok, Animal Communication,          69. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari,
Indiana Unv. Press, London, p.437                   Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of Life,
45. Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia, Vol.2,         Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. II / Part
p.106                                               II, p.679
46. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari,          70. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der Bienen,
Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of Life,     p.65
Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. II / Part   71. Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia ,Vol.2,
II, p.212                                           p.108
47. Murray Hoyt, The World of Bees, p.48            72. Alex Hawes, “What the Buzz is All About,”
48. Edward O.Wilson, The Insect Societies,          Zoogoer, September-October 1995,
Harvard         Unv.    Press,       Cambridge,
Massachussetts, 1972                                1995/6/buzzabout.cfm
49. Murray Hoyt, The World of Bees, p.49            73. Karl von Frisch, Arilarin Hayati (The Life of
50. Thomas A.Sebeok, Animal Communication,          Bees), pp.135-136
p.218                                               74. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
51. Edward O.Wilson, The Insect Societies,          Bee, p.152
p.98.                                               75. Adam Frank, “Quantum honeybees,”
52. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der Bienen,      Discover , Nov. 97, p.80
p.56                                                76. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
53. Murray Hoyt, The World of Bees, p.32            Bee, p.156
54. Encyclopedia Americana, 1993, p.440             77. Ibid., pp.154-156
55. New Encyclopedia of Science, Orbis              78. Marian Stamp Dawkins, Through Our Eyes
Publishing, 1985, Vol .2, p.218                     Only? The search for animal consciousness,
56. Ibid., p.217                                    W.H. Freeman Spektrum, pp.89-90
57. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der Bienen,      79. Ibid., p.89
p.47                                                80. Ibid., p.90
58. Karl von Frisch, Arilarin Hayati (The Life of   81. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
Bees), pp.55-56                                     Bee, pp.163-164
59. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der Bienen,      82. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari,
p.57                                                Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of
60. Moddy Science Classics, Moody Video, City       Life, Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. II /
of the Bees, Chicago, USA,1998                      Part II, p.66
61. The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Sensory        83. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
Reception, Vol 27, p.134                            Bee, p.171
62. Edward O.Wilson, The Insect Societies, p.96     84. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari,
63. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey       Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of Life,
Bee, p.140                                          Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. II / Part
64. Murray Hoyt, The World of Bees, p.40            II, p.66
65. Ibid., p.47                                     85.
66.       Hayvanlar      Ansiklopedisi-Bocekler     upariver.html
(Encyclopedia of Animals—Insects), C.B.P.C.         86. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
                                          Harun Yahya                                             199

Bee, p.15                                           110. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der
87. Encyclopedia Americana, 1993, p.439             Bienen, p.62
88. Karl von Frisch, Arilarin Hayati (The Life of   111. BYTE Magazine, June 1995
Bees), p.143                                        112. The Guinness Encyclopedia, p.18
89. Ibid., pp.39-41                                 113. Ibid., p.91
90. Ibid., p.31                                     114. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari,
91. Edward O.Wilson, The Insect Societies, p.96     Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of Life,
92. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey       Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. II / Part
Bee, p.51                                           II, p.99
93. Thomas A.Sebeok, Animal Communication,          115. Joan Embery, Collection of Amazing Animal
p.225.                                              Facts, Delacorte Press, New York, 1983, p.23
94. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der Bienen,      116. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari,
p.59                                                Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of Life,
95. Thomas A.Sebeok, Animal Communication,          Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. II / Part
p.237                                               II, p.88
96. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der Bienen,      117. Ibid., p.65
p.61                                                118. Karl von Frisch, Arilarin Hayati (The Life of
97. Peter J.B. Slater, The Encyclopedia of          Bees), pp.117-119
Animal Behaviour, Facts on File Publications,       119. Ibid., p.124
New York, p.120                                     120. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der
98. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der Bienen,      Bienen, pp.48-49
p.61                                                121. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species,
99. Thomas Seeley, “Measurement of Nest             p.186
Cavity Volume by the Honey Bee,” Behavioral         122. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
Ecology and Sociobiology, Vol. 2, No. 2, June       Bee, p.81
1977, pp. 201-227                                   123. Karl von Frisch, Arilarin Hayati (The Life of
100. Edward O.Wilson, The Insect Societies,         Bees), p.22
p.306                                               124. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
101. Karl von Frisch, Animal Architecture, p.84     Bee, p.36
102. Ernst Neufert, NEUFERT, trans. Abdullah        125. Ibid., p.83
Erkan, Guven Publishing, 30th edition, 1983,        126. Karl von Frisch, Animal Architecture, p.95
p.534                                               127. Ibid., p.87
103. Edward O.Wilson, The Insect Societies,         128. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
p.230                                               Bee, p.81
104. The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol.21,       129. The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Sensory
15th edition, 1991, p.663                           Reception, Vol.27, p.132
105. Karl von Frisch, Tanzsprache und               130. Karl von Frisch, Animal Architecture, p.89
Orientierung der Bienen, Universitat München,       131. Encyclopedia Americana, 1993, p.441
Springer Verlag, 1965, p.269                        132. Murray Hoyt, The World of Bees, pp.99-100
106.      Thomas      A.     Sebeok,     Animal     133. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
Communication, pp.237-238.                          Bee, p.81
107. Edward O.Wilson, The Insect Societies,         134. Anthony Smith, Insan Beyni ve Yasami
p.238                                               (Human Brain and Life), trans. Nejat Ebcioglu,
108. Karl von Frisch, Aus Dem Leben Der             Inkilap Publishing House, p.39
Bienen, p.62                                        135. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey
109. Edward O.Wilson, The Insect Societies,         Bee, pp.81, 83
p.225                                               136. "Creation or Chance!: God's purpose with

                                          Adnan Oktar
200                          THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

mankind proved by the wonder of the universe,"      Earth," Scientific American, vol. 271, October
edited by G. Mansfield, Logos Publications          1994, p.78
137. Karl von Frisch, Animal Architecture, p.86     160. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by
138. Anthony Smith, Insan Beyni ve Yasami           Means of Natural Selection, The Modern
(Human Brain and Life), p.38                        Library, New York, p.127
139. Ibid., p.39                                    161. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A
140. Ibid., p.39                                    Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard
141. Encyclopedia Americana, 1993, p.444            University Press, 1964, p.184
142.        162. B. G. Ranganathan, Origins?,
inf27.html                                          Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1988,
143. Lucy W. Clausen, Insect Fact and Folklore,     p.7
Int. Book and Periodicals Supply Services, New      163. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A
Delhi                                               Facsimile of the First Edition, p.179
144. John Brackenbury, Insects and Flowers,         164. Derek A. Ager, "The Nature of the Fossil
1995, UK, p.12                                      Record," Proceedings of the British Geological
145. Murray Hoyt, The World of Bees, p.174.         Association, vol 87, 1976, p.133
146. “Nutritional and healing benefits of honey,”   165. Douglas J. Futuyma, Science on Trial,                           Pantheon Books, New York, 1983, p.197
honeybacteriam_rbbd.htm                             166. Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The Ivory Tower,
147. “Honey ‘weapon against superbugs’,”            Toplinger Publications, New York, 1970, 75-14;        Charles E. Oxnard, "The Place of
148. Murray Hoyt, The World of Bees, p.181          Australopithecines in Human Evolution:
149. Deb Pouech, “Apitheraphy-Using Bees and        Grounds for Doubt", Nature, vol 258, 389
Hive Products for Health,” The Natural Farmer,      167. "Could science be brought to an end by
Summer 2000                                         scientists' belief that they have final answers or
150. Judy Christensen, “Bee Pollen, Nature’s        by society's reluctance to pay the bills?"
most perfect food,” Preparedness Journal,           Scientific American, December 1992, p.20
January/February 1994, p.15                         168. Alan Walker, Science, vol. 207, 7 March
151. ”Bee Pollen Benefits”, http://www.             1980, p.1103; A. J. Kelso, Physical Antropology,                      1st ed., J. B. Lipincott Co., New York, 1970,
152.                             p.221; M. D. Leakey, Olduvai Gorge, vol. 3,
153.                  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1971,
154. Sidney Fox, Klaus Dose, Molecular              p.272
Evolution and The Origin of Life, W. H. Freeman     169. Jeffrey Kluger, "Not So Extinct After All:
and Company, San Francisco, 1972, p.4               The Primitive Homo Erectus May Have
155. Alexander I. Oparin, Origin of Life, Dover     Survived Long Enough To Coexist With Modern
Publications, NewYork, 1936, 1953 (reprint),        Humans," Time, 23 December 1996
p.196                                               170. S. J. Gould, Natural History, vol. 85, 1976,
156. "New Evidence on Evolution of Early            p.30
Atmosphere and Life," Bulletin of the American      171. Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The Ivory Tower,
Meteorological Society, vol 63, November 1982,      p.19
1328-1330                                           172. Richard Lewontin, "The Demon-Haunted
157. Stanley Miller, Molecular Evolution of Life:   World," The New York Review of Books,
Current Status of the Prebiotic Synthesis of        January 9, 1997, p.28
Small Molecules, 1986, p.7                          173. Malcolm Muggeridge, The End of
158. Jeffrey Bada, Earth, February 1998, p.40       Christendom, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980,
159. Leslie E. Orgel, "The Origin of Life on        p.43

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