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Fasting
of Silkworms
By
Dr. `Abd Al-Hakam `Abd Al-Latif As-Sa`idi
Lecturer of Entomology – Faculty of Agriculture – Al-Azhar
University
The
world of insects introduces us patterns of fasting that indicate
Allah's Omnipotence and Wonder in His creation. Although it is well
known that food is among the factors of growth for living organisms,
silkworms prove that fasting and abstaining absolutely from food and
drink do not impair the body. Rather, it reforms these creatures in
a captivating and wondrous way. In order to grasp the secrets of
this fasting, firstly we should delve into some facts about the
lifecycle of this creature; this can be shown as follows:
In
the beginning of spring, the eggs incubate small gluttonous larvae.
The newly hatched larvae do not take long before they feed on
mulberry leaves for five days. Their bodies, thereby, grow up too
quickly to the extent that their skin cannot bear this rapid
development and thus be replaced by another spacious one. Thus, they
are obliged to observe fasting for one or two days until their
bodies are physiologically adapted to cast away the old skin. This
process recurs five times during the earliest stage before the
completion of this metamorphosis in a period amounting to thirty
days. Eventually, they will have completed the stage of development
and reached a remarkable bulk.
When
the larva reaches this bulk, it inevitably enters into another kind
of fasting that extends for about six days. Thus, it takes shelter
in a quiet location to spin a covering for their pupal stage. Truly
speaking, it’s very captivating to know that the larva spins only
one thread of fine, strong, lustrous fiber whose length ranges from
400 to 1200 meters. This covering is called cocoons, which are the
source of commercial silk that souls yearn to wear garments made of
it but for Allah, Most High, has prohibited it (silky clothes) to
men and made it lawful for women. At this very moment, we can say
that the worm has entered into the no-feeding stage (between the
larva and adult in the metamorphosis of holometabolous insects),
during which the larva typically undergoes complete transformation
within a protective cocoon. The pupal stage needs complete quietness
for it is not actually one of the stages of development or
hibernation however it seems as such. Rather, it resembles an
important stage in the life of this wondrous insect, which is
subject to various kinds of sequent and rapid transformations. This
stage prepares these insects to transform and reshape into another
following stage.
Eventually,
the dormant fasting worm turns into a rebellious giant that destroys
fetters to get out into the spacious world. It secretes a caustic
liquid that dissolves a part of this cocoon to raise the covering,
producing a beautiful organism called the silkworm moth, which lays
its eggs after fertilization. It spends the remaining five days of
its life in a state of fasting after it lays its fertilized eggs,
which will be hatched in the coming spring to restart the cycle once
again. Glory be to Allah, the Originator, the Restorer!
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