At first...

At first, it says: “And your Lord revealed to the Bee (an instinctive revelation) to build cells in the mountains and in the trees and in what they (men) build.” The Qur’anic term /wahy/ here denotes that same instinctive command and motives and that unconscious revelation which Allah has created in different animals and living objects. The first mission of the bees, in this verse, is concerned with building hives.

The reason for this is probably the fact that having a proper residence is the first condition for living, following which other activities are being made possible. Incidentally, according to Tafsir-i-’Atyab-ul-Bayan, there are explicit allusions in the Qur’an as to the fact that all beings, including the inanimate objects, plants and animals have got a certain…