The fly: humble or humbling?

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Bismi llāhi l-Raḥmāni l-Raḥīm.

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Ever Merciful.

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ ضُرِبَ مَثَلٌ فَاسْتَمِعُوا لَهُ ۚ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ لَنْ يَخْلُقُوا ذُبَابًا وَلَوِ اجْتَمَعُوا لَهُ ۖ وَإِنْ يَسْلُبْهُمُ الذُّبَابُ شَيْئًا لَا يَسْتَنْقِذُوهُ مِنْهُ ۚ ضَعُفَ الطَّالِبُ وَالْمَطْلُوبُ

Yā ayyuhā l-nāsu ḍuriba mathalun fa-stamiʿū lah. Inna lladhīna tadʿūna min dūni llāhi lan yakhluqū dhubāban wa-law ijtamaʿū lah. Wa-in yaslubhumu l-dhubābu shayʾan lā yastanqidhūhu minh. Ḍaʿufa l-ṭālibu wa-l-maṭlūb.

People, a parable is presented, so listen to it: those you invoke besides Allah will never create a fly, even if they all come together for it. And if the fly snatches anything from them, they cannot recover it from the fly. Weak are the seeker and the sought.

Sūrat al-Ḥajj, 22:73. Working translation. الآية 73

The Qur’an asks us to listen. Then it places before us a creature we usually try to brush away.

The ayat exposes the helplessness of those worshipped besides Allah. Even together, they cannot create a fly or recover what it takes from them. Its image also invites us to reflect on our own dependence. How easily we become impressed by power, including our own, while forgetting how limited it remains.

An old account preserved in al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī’s History of Baghdad brings that lesson into a ruler’s presence.

Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr was sitting when a fly began landing on his face. It returned repeatedly, until he became thoroughly irritated.

He asked who was at the door. When told that Muqātil ibn Sulaymān was there, he ordered that he be brought in.

“Do you know why Allah created flies?” the caliph asked.

“Yes,” Muqātil replied.

لِيُذِلَّ اللَّهُ بِهِ الْجَبَّارِينَ

Li-yudhilla llāhu bihi l-jabbārīn.

“So that Allah may humble tyrants through them.”

Al-Manṣūr fell silent. تاريخ بغداد ت بشار

The account leaves us with that silence. A man with authority over people had been reminded of the limits of his authority by a fly that would not stop returning. The answer gave him something to consider about himself.

We need not read the scholar’s reply as a claim to have explained every purpose for which flies exist. It points to one moral lesson: a small creature can expose an enormous illusion about ourselves.

We have been given abilities, opportunities, and sometimes authority. Yet none of these makes us independent of the One who gave them. We still need sleep. We still become thirsty. We depend on the functioning of bodies whose smallest workings we do not command.

Remembering this should affect the way we treat people.

The Prophet ﷺ described kibr (كِبْر, arrogance) in words that make this danger very clear:

الْكِبْرُ بَطَرُ الْحَقِّ وَغَمْطُ النَّاسِ

Al-kibru baṭaru l-ḥaqqi wa-ghamṭu l-nās.

“Arrogance is rejecting the truth and looking down on people.”

Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 91a. Working translation of the concluding phrase. sunnah.com

This gives us something more useful than a vague instruction to “be humble.” It gives us a way to examine ourselves. Can I accept a true word from someone younger, poorer, less educated, or less influential than I am? Does another person’s lower position make their feelings easier for me to dismiss?

Humility makes room for their voice. It allows us to say, “I may have misunderstood. Tell me what happened.” It allows us to acknowledge a mistake without making the other person pay for having noticed it.

Perhaps we can carry three questions from the story into our day:

• Whose correction do I find hardest to accept, and why?
• Who receives the force of my irritation when something small goes wrong?
• Can the people under my authority disagree with me without fear of humiliation?

The next interruption may give us an opportunity to practise. We can pause before speaking, lower our voice, and listen to the person in front of us. If we have spoken harshly, we can return and apologize. These small acts give humility a place in our conduct.

A humble fly was enough to humble the limits of a caliph’s power. Remembering those limits may help us use our own power with greater mercy.

O Allah, help us recognize the truth when it reaches us, accept correction from whoever brings it, and treat the people entrusted to our care with gentleness.