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01-12-2024
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Scientific topics- Scientific wonders (15): Beavers are Architects by Nature
   
 
 
In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, Most Merciful  
 

The beaver's lodge:

We will now watch something amazing about an animal called the beaver. This animal is very smart, and it has experience in building, so it is a skillful architect which rivals the best human architects. 

The beaver builds its lodge in the still water

, so if there is a stream, the beaver has to build a dam with which it turns the running water into a lake, paving by this the way to build its lodge in this water.

Allah the Almighty says:

﴾ Fir'aun (Pharaoh) said: "Who then, O Musa (Moses PBUH), is the Lord of you two?"* [Musa (Moses)] said: "Our Lord is He Who gave to each thing its form and nature, then guided it aright." ﴿ 

[Ta-Ha, 49-50]

Allah guides His creations to their best interests. Accordingly, the beaver knows by instinct what is beneficial to it, so it cuts the trees to build the dam

which in turn makes a lake with still water.

The beaver eats the leaves of the branches in the trees before cutting them, so it knows by nature that it should fed on them as you can see in the documentary film.

It uses its teeth to chow hard wood in order to cut down trees, and its teeth grow continuously, so they will not be worn down by chewing wood.

The amazing thing is that the beaver cut the tree in a way that makes it falls towards water, because the beaver cannot drag the trunk if it falls away from water.

Furthermore, the beaver is a very good swimmer; it uses its webbed hind feet and its big flat tail that acts as rudder while swimming.

As you can see, the beaver is now dealing with a tree, so it takes down the branches then it drags them to the dam, and it puts them right in place. What we see is beyond imagination, because this animal cannot think, yet it is molded to do that by instinct. It puts the branches in place and continues working.

Ustaz Alaa, both the male and the female beaver cut down close to 400 trees every year in order to build dams, and they turn running water into a lake whose water is still, so that it becomes suitable to build its lodge. 

This tree is far from water, and it is close to the ground. Therefore, as you see, the beaver is cutting the branches which will be used to build the dam, and then it will drag the trunk. Both the male and the female are doing all that work.

In a while we will see how this running water will turn into a lake. What catches the attention is that the beaver's teeth continue growing.

Some animals are privileged with characteristics humans do not have:

Some animals have better characteristics than man. For example, some animals' sight is 8 times better than man's, and the dog's smelling sense is one million times better than man's. Allah the Almighty says: 

﴾ "Our Lord is He Who gave to each thing its form and nature, then guided it aright." ﴿ 

[Ta-Ha, 50]

Man is privileged with being assigned by Allah:

In fact, the characteristics Allah has given to the different creations He created are amazing, but man is privileged with being assigned by Allah to get to know Him, to follow His Method, to be straight on His Path and to gain happiness in the worldly life and in the Hereafter by getting closer to Him, and this is considered the best characteristic at all. Animals have their own world.

Our Master Ali, may Allah ennoble his face, said, "Angels are given reason without desires, animals are given instincts, but they do not have reason, whereas man is given both, so if man transcends above his desires, he will become better than angels, but if his desires take over his reason, he will descend to a rank that is lower than animals'."

The beaver masters swimming in water, and it lives also on land, so beavers are amphibious. The
beaver's lodge should be built in still water, and though it is above water, its only entrance is beneath water surface as if it is a fortified fortress. We will see its lodge in a while.

The dam built by the beaver takes months to be finished after the beaver puts the branches and the tree trunks neatly. Moreover, it maintains the dam every now and then so that it will be insusceptible and tight.

The interviewer: 
The beaver knows that the stream's pressure is stronger under water than the pressure on the surface, and this is why the dam is thicker in its lower part, right?

Dr. Rateb:
Amazingly, man learnt how to build dams from beavers. In the following scene, you will see the resemblance between a man-made dam and the one built by a beaver,

given man has to get a PHD in architecture, soil mechanism, water properties and water pressure in order to build a dam that is similar to the one built by a beaver. Allah the Almighty says:

﴾ Fir'aun (Pharaoh) said: "Who then, O Musa (Moses PBUH), is the Lord of you two?"* [Musa (Moses)] said: "Our Lord is He Who gave to each thing its form and nature, then guided it aright." ﴿ 

[Ta-Ha, 49-50]

Allah gave beavers the instinct to build these dams, and they are equipped with teeth that continually grow which might seem a troublesome characteristic to us. 

Ustaz Alaa, some creatures grow a limb if it is cut off, and this is beyond man's abilities. Some worms grow a tail and a head if they are cut in half.

This shows Allah's Might. 

Here you can see the lodge of the beaver, and as you may notice it is above water whereas its only entrance opening is under water to protect its lodge. Furthermore, the lodge has many rooms in which the beaver lives with its family calmly and peacefully. 

A king once asked his vizier, "Who is the king?" He answered, "You are the King, Your Majesty." The king said, "No, he is not me. The king is a man who neither we know, nor he knows us. He has a home to dwell in, a wife to please him, and bread to satiate him. If he knows us, he will strive to conciliate us, and if we know him,  we will strive to disconcert him."

Man-made dam is domed-shaped just like the dam built by the beaver, and this is one of Allah's Signs that denote His Greatness. Allah the Almighty says:

﴾ And on the earth are signs for those who have Faith with certainty, ﴿ 

[Adh-Dhariyat, 20]

How can someone disobey this Great Lord? How can someone disbelieve in Allah the Great? Is His Paradise not worth seeking? Is His Hell-Fire not worth fearing?

(O son of Adam, ask for Me, and you will find Me; and when you find Me, you find everything else; and when you miss Me, you miss everything, and I should be loved by you more than anything else.)

[Mentioned in the Relic]

There are endless Signs on land that reflect Allah's Greatness for those who seek certainty. Reflecting on the creation of the heavens and the earth is in fact the widest gate and the shortest path to reach Allah. 

" Verily! In the creation of the heavens and the earth,…. there are indeed signs":

The interviewer: 
Here we can see scenes of the beaver's dam, right?

Dr. Rateb: 
Yes, that is right, and this is a dam built by a beaver.

The interviewer: 
You may notice that spillways and passageways are built into the dam to allow water to drain off without damaging it.

Dr. Rateb: 
Allah the Almighty says:

﴾ Verily! In the creation of the heavens and the earth,﴿ 

[Aal-'Imran, 190]

This is the lodge from inside. The beaver enter its lodge from the entrance under the water, and as you see, it has several rooms, but when does the beaver build its lodge? It builds it after it builds the dam, given building the dam takes up to 4 months and requires so many trees which are cut by beaver's teeth. Allah the Almighty says:

﴾ And on the earth are signs for those who have Faith with certainty, ﴿ 

[Adh-Dhariyat, 20]

﴾ Say: "Behold all that is in the heavens and the earth," ﴿ 

[Yunus, 101]

Allah the Almighty asks us to get to know Him, and this  beaver is one of the Signs that make us know Allah.

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