68 - 69) Here the tune and tone of the verses strangely change...

68 - 69) Here the tune and tone of the verses strangely change, and continuing with the mention of God's favours and bounties to Man; the speech turns on the BEE and HONEY, drawing our attention to how the little creature in such a mysterious way, fulfils God's order, and performs the duty assigned to him!

:ِ ``Your Lord inspired the bee to build its home upon the mountains and trees, and among the habitations of Man on their lattice-works.'' The Arabic, ``VAHY'' literally denotes inspiration but connotes to induce, or to put a message into the mind or heart by God. The instinct of creatures too, is some sort of a ``VAHY'' or inspiration that they receive from their Creator. Therefore, here in this verse the bee's instinct is referred to as God's inspiration.

Now-a-days, Man has much more information about the wonderful civilization of bees than he had before. The way the bee builds its wonderful home or the honey-comb, with its hexagonal cells, and so geometrically perfect, upon the hills, on the trees, or even [ 476 ] among the habitations of men, is one of the wonders of nature! The bee, by its instinct, eats the juice of various kinds of flowers and fruits, to make within its stomach the honey which it later stores it in those cells of wax.

The bee's process of making honey is no less stranger than that of the cow's making milk! There are many important and meaningful points in this verses, some of which are as follows:ِ 1ِ HOW AND OF WHAT IS HONEY PRODUCED? By definition, honey is a sweet, syrupy carbohydrate solution, produced by the honeybee from flower nectar.

The nectar is drawn into bee's tongue, or labium, and from there it is passed into the honey stomach of the bee, where salivery enzymes convert the cane suger in the nectar into dextrose and levulose, two invert sugar. Upon returning to the hive, the bee pours back the partially digested nectar into a cell of the comb. Next, ``house bees'' cause further chemical changes, by working the nectar in their mouth.

Excess water is evaporated from the solution as the house bees fan their wings over the cell. Finally the honey is ready, and the house bees seal the cell with wax. The flavor and colour of honey are dependent on the flowers from which the nectar was taken. 2ِ THE SURE AND EVEN WAYS OF GOD Bees have divided themselves in various groups of workers. Each group's duty is to do a certain part of work to complete the whole process.