Mosquito in the Quran

One of the animals mentioned in the Quran is the “mosquito.” When idolaters of Makkah heard verses telling about enormous animals such as elephant and camel, they accepted the Prophet and his invitation and did not object to the companions. Nevertheless, they had been hopelessly looking for ways to object to mock at the verses.

However, Allah the Glorious states in His book:

“O men! Here is a parable set forth! Listen to it! Those on whom, besides God, ye call, 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!” (al-Hajj, 73)

“The parable of those who take protectors other than God is that of the spider, who builds (to itself) a house; but truly the flimsiest of houses is the spider's house; - if they but knew.” (al-Ankabut, 41)

Like in these verses, when He mentioned the names of small animals such as fly and spider, and narrated parables about them, idolaters started to object. They thought they caught the opportunity they had been looking for in order to humiliate the Quran. How could Allah tell about such small and insignificant things? How on earth could it be? Allah the Glorious replied their objections with the 26th verse of surah al-Baqara:

“God disdains not to use the similitude of things, lowest as well as highest. Those who believe know that it is truth from their Lord; but those who reject faith say: "What means God by this similitude?" By it He causes many to stray, and many He leads into the right path; but He causes not to stray, except those who forsake (the path).”

The Arabic name of the mosquito mentioned in this verse is “BAUD.” It is written as “BAUDAT” in the verse. The letter “t” at the end of the word gives feminine meaning to it. That is to say, the mosquito mentioned in the verse is female. Moreover, the pronoun “ha”, which is added to the end of the word “FAWQAHA” (above her) in the verse, refers to female gender. That means that female spider was specially chosen for this similitude!

Of course, there is a significant wisdom in why the Quran mentions female mosquito specially. However, this wisdom came into light hundreds of years after the verse was sent down, as a result of some scientific researches. As you read in the article “MOSQUITO” in details, mosquitoes which suck people’s blood and use it for their eggs are female mosquitoes. This is why the Quran chose the female mosquito for the similitude in order to point out to this reality.