The species whose copies are thus numerous have important duties and great value, like the copies of a book are multiplied in relation to the book’s importance. That is to say, the species of flies have important duties and high value so that the All-Wise Creator has greatly multiplied those tiny missives of divine determining and copies of the words of divine power. The All-Wise Qur’an states:
O men! Here is a parable set forth; listen to it! Those on whom you call besides God cannot create [even] a fly, if they all met together for the purpose! And if the fly should snatch away anything from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly. Feeble are those who petition and those whom they petition!(22:73)
That is to say, if those things claimed to be gods by the people of misguidance were to gather together all causes and false gods apart from God Almighty, they would be unable to create even a fly. That is, the creation of a fly is such a dominical miracle and clear sign of the creative act that even if all causes were to assemble they would be unable to make anything like it or to duplicate it, and would be unable to dispute that dominical sign.
Flies, the significant subject of the above verse, defeated Nimrod, and when Moses (Upon whom be peace) complained about their bothering him, saying: “O my Sustainer! Why have You made these irritating creatures so very numerous?”, the following answer came to him by way of inspiration:
“You have objected about the flies once while the flies have asked many times: ‘O our Sustainer! This man has a huge head, yet he praises You with only one tongue, and sometimes he neglects to do that. If you had created us out of only his head, there would have been creatures like us praising You with thousands of tongues!’”
Moreover the flies, which thus defended the wisdom in their creation against Moses’ complaint sufficiently powerfully to withstand a thousand such objections, also pursue great cleanliness. These insects continually wash their faces, eyes, and wings as though taking ablutions, and have important duties. The common view is short-sighted; it is still unable to comprehend those duties.
Indeed, Almighty God has created an orderly group of carniverous beings as public health officials of a sort; they cleanse the seas by gathering up the corpses of other sea-creatures1 that die every day in their millions,
One fish produces thousands of eggs and thousands of young. So to maintain the balance, from a roe consisting of a million eggs the young fish that hatch and survive will equal the fish that die. Also, the mother fish cannot always superintend her young because of the great difference in size between them, and she cannot enter the places they hide. So as a manifestation of divine compassion, the All-Wise and Compassionate promotes one of the young to supervise the others, and employs the tiny creature in the mother’s duties.