Epigraph
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ ضُرِبَ مَثَلٌ فَاسْتَمِعُوا لَهُ ۚ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ لَن يَخْلُقُوا ذُبَابًا وَلَوِ اجْتَمَعُوا لَهُ ۖ وَإِن يَسْلُبْهُمُ الذُّبَابُ شَيْئًا لَّا يَسْتَنقِذُوهُ مِنْهُ ۚ ضَعُفَ الطَّالِبُ وَالْمَطْلُوبُ
Presented by Zia H Shah MD
Audio summary:
Abstract
The following report provides an exhaustive scientific, philosophical, and theological analysis of the Quranic parable found in Surah Al-Hajj (22:73). This verse presents a multifaceted challenge to human agency, centering on the creation and metabolic processes of the housefly (Musca domestica). By asserting the impossibility of creating even a marginal creature, the Quran establishes an ontological boundary that separates the “World of Creation” (Alam al-Khalq) from the “World of Command” (Alam al-Amr). This investigation explores the intricate biomechanics of insect flight—specifically the complex wing hinge and sensorimotor integration—as a “gold standard” of engineering that remains unreplicated by human technology. Furthermore, the report delves into the biomedical significance of “extra-oral digestion,” explaining the molecular irreversibility of substances snatched by the fly as a scientific miracle of the text. Central to this analysis is the work of Zia H. Shah MD on consciousness, which identifies the subjective experience of the self as the “Hard Problem” that defies materialist reductionism. By synthesizing quantum physics, cognitive closure, and classical exegesis, the report concludes that the “feebleness” of the seeker and the sought represents the inherent limits of the finite mind when confronted with the infinite creative power of the Divine.
The Theological Architecture of the Fly Parable
The Quranic discourse often employs parables (amthal) to bridge the gap between abstract metaphysical truths and the sensory experiences of humanity. Surah Al-Hajj, verse 73, stands as a seminal example of this rhetorical strategy, specifically designed to dismantle the intellectual foundations of polytheism (shirk) and materialist self-sufficiency. The verse begins with a universal imperative: “O mankind, an example is presented, so listen to it”. This directive to “listen” (fa-istami’u) denotes a requirement for profound contemplation and analytical rigor, rather than passive hearing.
The primary theological assertion of the verse is that all entities invoked besides Allah—whether they be stone idols, celestial bodies, or the deified constructs of modern secularism—lack the inherent power to “create a fly,” even if they were to “combine all their forces to do so”. Classical scholarship, including the works of Ibn Kathir and Al-Tabari, emphasizes that this is a challenge directed at the very concept of agency. It highlights a “compounded impotence”: the false deities are not only unable to perform the highest act of power (creation) but are also unable to defend against the lowest form of nuisance (the fly). This juxtaposition is a masterstroke of divine communication, using a creature characterized by Al-Qurtubi as possessing worthlessness, weakness, and repugnance to expose the fragility of those who claim divine attributes.
The Exegetical Dimensions of the Seeker and the Sought
The concluding phrase of the verse, “Weak are the seeker and the sought” (da’ufa al-talibu wa al-matlubu), provides a foundational insight into the nature of dependency. Islamic exegetes have meticulously analyzed the identities of these two roles to extract deeper philosophical meanings.
| Interpretive Framework | The Seeker (Al-Talib) | The Sought (Al-Matlub) | Theological Insight |
| Idolatry Deconstruction | The Idol / False Deity | The Fly | Demonstrates that the “god” cannot even retrieve a grain from a fly. |
| Socio-Psychological | The Worshipper | The Idol / False Deity | Highlights the futility of human devotion to an impotent object. |
| Ontological Limit | Human Agency | The Act of Creation | Emphasizes that life is a gift from the “World of Command,” not a product of effort. |
| Scientific Inquiry | The Scientist / Materialist | The Mystery of Life/Mind | Points to “Cognitive Closure” where the observer cannot reach the essence of the observed. |
This multi-layered feebleness suggests that neither the subject (the seeker) nor the object (the sought) possesses independent, inherent power. Instead, all agency is contingent upon the Divine Will. The synthesis of scholarly views establishes this parable as an irrefutable intellectual proof, demonstrating that those who are worshipped besides Allah are utterly powerless and unworthy of devotion.
The Biological Frontier: The Complexity of the Musca
From a scientific perspective, the challenge to “create a fly” is significantly more daunting than it appeared to pre-modern audiences. Modern entomology and biomechanics reveal that the fly is an extraordinarily sophisticated biological machine. Its “success” is attributed to specialized adaptations that include ultra-fast visual systems, powerful flight muscles, and a revolutionary control system.
The Biomechanics of Flight and the Wing Hinge
The flight of the fly represents a pinnacle of aerodynamic engineering. Researchers at Caltech, led by Michael Dickinson, have spent decades attempting to understand the “unique and incredibly complex biomechanical hinge” that connects the fly’s wings to its body. This hinge is not a simple joint but a 3D puzzle of approximately 15 interconnected sclerites (hard parts) linked by flexible joints. This system must be both strong enough to withstand thousands of beats per second and flexible enough to allow for instantaneous changes in trajectory.
The control of this hinge is managed by a remarkably small number of neurons. Only 12 neurons control the flight muscles, which respond to commands to either maintain the wingbeat or “tweak” it for aerobatic maneuvers. The integration of these components allows the fly to perform “saccades”—rapid changes in direction that are faster than a human eye blink, often turning 90 degrees in 30 to 50 milliseconds. This level of agility is the “gold standard” for flying machines, yet human attempts to replicate it in micromechanical flying insects still struggle to match the fly’s robustness and efficiency.
Sensory Systems and Information Processing
The fly’s sensory apparatus is equally complex. Insects possess sophisticated visual systems where approximately two-thirds of the brain (roughly 200,000 neurons) is dedicated to processing visual information. This visual system triggers flight behaviors based on the expansion of the “visual world,” allowing for obstacle avoidance and landing maneuvers.
In addition to vision, flies utilize “halteres”—specialized gyroscopic organs that sense the rotations of the body during flight. These halteres provide a biological version of a flight stabilization system, allowing the fly to maintain equilibrium even in unsteady environments. The “Grand Unified Fly” (GUF) simulation models used by engineers attempt to approximate these systems, but they reveal a degree of interdependent complexity that defies simple reductionism. The functional whole is far more than the sum of its parts, as the muscles, sensors, and neural circuits work cooperatively like a “dance troupe”.
The Creation Challenge: Modification versus Synthesis
The Quranic challenge specifically addresses the act of “creation” (khalq). Zia H. Shah MD argues that modern scientific achievements, such as cloning or genetic modification, do not meet this challenge because they “cheat” by using pre-existing biological models. True creation, in this theological context, requires starting from scratch without “reverse engineering” from the models God has already provided.
The Problem of Spontaneous Generation and Biogenesis
Biologists remain confused about the fundamental definition of life, with different definitions struggling to capture its essence. A central character of life is its ability to replicate—a process that defies the law of entropy. While atoms do not replicate, cells do, getting better organized over time through an “extremely complicated” arrangement that scientists cannot recreate in a test tube using the same proportions of atoms. The “command” for this arrangement is missing in inanimate matter.
The question of “how did life begin?” remains one of the premier unsolved mysteries of science. We observe that a chicken comes from an egg, which comes from a chicken, in an endless cycle. If life began by “chance,” the question arises: why does it not come into existence again spontaneously?. There is no observed “spontaneous generation” of life anywhere on the planet; life only comes from pre-existing life, which points toward an original Creative Act.
Elemental Constraints and the Cosmic Origin of Matter
Zia Shah offers a “lenient” condition of the fly challenge: atheists should attempt to build a living fly using silicone or another element of their choice, rather than the carbon-based models created by God. He references Carl Sagan’s observation that “to really make an apple pie from scratch, you must begin by inventing the universe”. This implies that scientists cannot claim to “create” life when they are using elements (like carbon or silicone) that were originally manufactured in exploding stars, which are themselves part of the Divine design.
Furthermore, the “fine-tuning” of the universe—represented by “Just Six Numbers” that must be perfectly tuned for life to exist—provides a mathematical basis for a “Provident and Gracious God”. The probability of the universe’s organization occurring by chance is estimated at one in $10^{500}$, a number so vast that it renders the atheistic “Multiverse” theory more akin to science fiction than science.
Metabolic Irreversibility: The Scientific Miracle of the Snatched Substance
The second half of Quran 22:73 states: “And if a fly should snatch away anything from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly”. Recent biomedical research identifies this as a “scientific miracle” related to the unique digestive processes of the fly.
Extra-Oral Digestion and Enzymatic Transformation
The housefly lacks teeth and is incapable of consuming solid food in its original state. To feed, it must first liquefy its food through a process of “regurgitation”. When a fly lands on a substance, such as a drop of perfume, honey, or a breadcrumb, it spits out enzymes and saliva onto the food.
- Regurgitation: The fly expels a droplet of pre-digested fluid from its crop onto the target substance.
- Enzymatic Breakdown: Powerful enzymes, such as amylase, begin breaking down the complex molecular structure of the food outside the fly’s body.
- Liquefaction: Within seconds, the solid or concentrated liquid is transformed into a diluted, pre-digested slurry.
- Ingestion: The fly then sucks up this liquid through its proboscis.
The theological and scientific insight here is the irreversibility of this “snatching.” Once the fly has touched the substance and initiated this process, the original substance—whether it be the scents of saffron or the nutrients in food—is chemically altered at the molecular level. Even if the fly were caught immediately, the “sought” (the substance) can never be retrieved in its original form. The Arabic particle “lam” used in the verse denotes a state of “lit’tabeed” (permanence/eternity), implying that they will never be able to catch or recover it, which aligns perfectly with the chemical reality of enzymatic digestion.
Vector-Borne Impacts: Snatching Health and Life
The “snatching” mentioned in the verse can also be interpreted as the snatching of “health and life” through the transmission of pathogens. Flies are associated with over 100 pathogens, leading to significant global burdens of hospitalization and mortality. For example, trachoma transmitted by flies causes 6 million cases of childhood blindness annually. In this sense, if a fly “snatches” one’s health by transmitting a disease, the false deities and the people themselves are often powerless to retrieve that state of health. This further emphasizes the feebleness of the “seeker” (the human) and the “sought” (the fly as a vector).
The Philosophy of Mind: Consciousness as the Irreproachable Sign
A central theme in the writings of Zia H. Shah MD is that consciousness is the “premier anomaly” in the landscape of materialist science. He argues that human and mammalian consciousness serves as the “irreproachable sign” of the Creator because it cannot be reduced to physical brain activity.
The Hard Problem and the Explanatory Gap
In modern philosophy of mind, the “Hard Problem” (as defined by David Chalmers) refers to the question of how physical matter—neurons, synapses, and chemicals—generates the subjective, qualitative experience of awareness (qualia). While science can map the neural correlates of consciousness (the “Easy Problems”), there is no explanation for why these processes are accompanied by a sense of “being”.
Zia Shah critiques the current scientific impasse, noting that there are over 200 competing theories of consciousness and no consensus in sight. He dismisses “Panpsychism” (the idea that mind is everywhere in matter) and “Illusionism” (the denial of consciousness) as desperate attempts to save the materialist worldview. Instead, he argues that the “explanatory gap” is a necessary consequence of the fact that consciousness belongs to a different order of existence.
Cognitive Closure and the Limits of Perception
Using the “Cognitive Closure” thesis formalized by Colin McGinn, Shah argues that human knowledge is necessarily finite. Just as a dog is “cognitively closed” to prime numbers due to its neural architecture, humans are likely closed to the mechanism that links the physical brain to consciousness. This creates a “wall of the mind” that prevents us from achieving a total “Theory of Everything” through naturalism alone.
Shah integrates this with Quranic epistemology, specifically the verse: “Vision encompasses Him not, but He encompasses all vision” (6:103). This is presented as a fundamental law of perception. No matter how much we widen our sensory aperture—whether through microscopes or the James Webb Telescope—we are only detecting physical interactions. The Divine Essence and the true nature of the soul remain beyond the “event horizon of human comprehension”.
The Theological Divide: Alam al-Amr versus Alam al-Khalq
To explain the origins of consciousness, Zia Shah utilizes the Quranic distinction between two realms of existence, as discussed in his commentary on Quran 17:85: “And they ask you concerning the soul (al-rūḥ). Say: The soul is of the command of my Lord…”.
| Realm | Arabic Term | Characteristics | Domain |
| World of Creation | Alam al-Khalq | Governed by time, space, biological causality, and evolution. | Physical brain, matter, atoms. |
| World of Command | Alam al-Amr | Realm of the immediate Divine Will (“Be!”), non-spatial, instantaneous. | Soul (Ruh), consciousness. |
Consciousness, in this view, is the “interface” or “meeting point” between these two realms. The brain belongs to the world of Khalq, but the soul (Ruh) belongs to the world of Amr. This explains why neuroscience fails to isolate the soul; it is looking for a spiritual reality using physical tools. The “little knowledge” given to humanity regarding the soul is a deliberate divine limit that ensures human humility and the necessity of revelation.
The Brain-as-Receiver Model
Contrasting the materialist “Generator Model” (where the brain produces the mind), Shah proposes a “Receiver” or “Transceiver” model. In this paradigm, the brain does not create consciousness; rather, it acts as a biological resonator that “tunes into” a non-local signal derived from the World of Command.
- Mechanism: Shah suggests the Zero-Point Field (ZPF) or quantum non-locality as the physical correlate for this transmission. Cortical microcolumns in the brain may resonate with frequencies of the ZPF when the brain is in a state of “Self-Organized Criticality”.
- Implication: If the brain is damaged, the “tuning” is lost (like a broken radio), but the signal (consciousness/soul) remains. This model explains phenomena like “terminal lucidity”—where dementia patients suddenly become clear before death—suggesting the soul is temporarily released from the constraints of the body.
Quantum Clues and the Divine Interstice
The concept of “The Divine Interstice” explores the quantum and theological dimensions of Quranic verses like 8:24: “…and know that Allah intervenes between a man and his heart…”. Shah posits that this “intervention” is not merely a metaphor but an ontological map of consciousness.
Non-Locality and the Isthmus of Being
Quantum entanglement and non-locality provide a physical bridge for the theological concept of the Alam al-Amr. Because quantum interactions are not bound by space or time, they offer a plausible mechanism for how the Transcendent interacts with the physical brain. The human being is an “isthmus” (Barzakh) where the temporal world of matter intersects with the timeless world of the Divine Command.
This “intervention” implies that the core of human identity—the “heart” (Qalb) or the seat of consciousness—is not a closed system. It is a permeable boundary where the Divine Will continuously “stabilizes” the flux of the psyche. Without this stabilization, the human mind would dissolve into chaos. This suggests that consciousness is not a static possession of the creature but a dynamic, contingent relationship with the Creator.
The Projector and the Movie Screen: Nafs vs. Ruh
To further clarify the nature of the self, Shah distinguishes between the Nafs and the Ruh.
- The Ruh (Spirit): The pure, immutable “witness” and the underlying condition for experience to exist. Shah likens this to the “light of the projector”.
- The Nafs (Self): The evolving personality, memory, and cognition that changes over time. This is likened to the “movie on the screen”.
Materialist neuroscience focuses exclusively on the “movie” (the Nafs), which is dependent on the brain’s hardware. However, it completely misses the “light” (the Ruh), without which the movie could not be seen. This distinction reinforces the idea that “Consciousness comes from Consciousness”—a Supreme Mind that precedes the inert universe.
The Failure of the Collective Forces: AI and Reductionism
The fly challenge explicitly mentions that even if “all they combine together,” they cannot create the creature. In the modern age, this “combination of forces” is exemplified by the global pursuit of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AI and the Mirage of Consciousness
While AI can perform complex computations and mimic human language, Zia Shah argues that it cannot attain real consciousness. Drawing on psychiatric and theological perspectives, he asserts that human consciousness has a spiritual origin bestowed by God, which lies beyond material replication. AI is essentially “software running on wetware,” a model of the Nafs without the Ruh.
The argument from “intentionality”—that mental states are about something—is a primary defeater for the idea that machines can be conscious. Physical processes, described in terms of cause and effect, do not inherently possess intentionality. Therefore, a machine, no matter how complex, remains a “seeker” that can never reach the “sought”—the actual subjective experience of being.
The Insignificance of Idols and the Folly of Worshippers
The parable ultimately serves to deconstruct the psychological attachment to false deities, whether they are ancient stone idols or modern scientific paradigms that claim to explain away the soul. By being defeated by a creature as “contemptible” as a fly, these false gods are shown to be unworthy of devotion. The “compounded feebleness” of the idol that cannot create and the scientist who cannot explain the mind leaves only one logical conclusion: the necessity of Tawheed (Monotheism) and a true estimation of Allah’s power.
The Epistemological Event Horizon: Humility as a Design Feature
The “Hard Problem” of consciousness and the “Fly Challenge” are not merely scientific puzzles waiting to be solved; they are “design features” of the human experience. They ensure that human free will remains intact by preventing humans from “possessing” or fully controlling the mechanism of life and mind.
Revelation as the Bridge
Because of “Cognitive Closure” regarding the self and the Divine, human intellect alone cannot navigate the “Unseen” (Ghayb). Revelation is presented as the sole “navigation data” or “radar” for the blind intellect to reach the Transcendent. The fly, in its biological complexity and metabolic uniqueness, acts as a “sign” (Ayah) that points the way toward this realization.
The Quranic verse 41:53 promises: “We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes manifest to them that it is the truth”. The “horizons” (the universe and the fly’s biology) and the “souls” (human consciousness) converge to testify to the same reality: the absolute uniqueness of the Creator.
Thematic Epilogue: The Mirror of the Musca
The parable of the fly in Quran 22:73 is a profound invitation to ontological humility. It serves as a mirror held up to the face of human pride, reflecting back a “feebleness” that is as inescapable as the laws of physics. In the intricate dance of the fly’s wings, the molecular chemistry of its saliva, and the “Hard Problem” of its awareness, we find a challenge that remains as potent in the age of CRISPR and AI as it was in the seventh-century Hijaz.
The “seeker and the sought” are both bound by the limits of the Alam al-Khalq. The scientist seeking to “create” life and the idol worshipper seeking “help” from a statue are both operating within a finite, contingent system. The fly—small, annoying, and ephemeral—is the gatekeeper of this boundary. It “snatches” the certainty of the materialist and transforms it into a pre-digested mystery that can never be recovered through reductionism alone.
To “listen to the example” is to recognize that we are “isthmuses” sustained by a “World of Command” that we can sense but never fully comprehend. The “irreproachable sign” of consciousness and the “gold standard” of the fly’s flight are not anomalies to be explained away; they are the “horizons” of our perception, pointing toward a Supreme Mind whose creativity is as manifest in the smallest insect as it is in the vastness of the cosmos. In this realization, the “weakness” of the seeker becomes the beginning of wisdom, and the “sought” becomes the bridge to the Divine.
The Glorious Quran and Science 
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