Divine manifestation (tajalli) is the attainment of inner light as a result of special Divine gifts. This is experienced by travelers on the way of Truth who are committed to prayer. Tajalli is not only the manifestation of Divine mysteries under the lights of Divine knowledge (marifa), but also that they are known in one’s conscience and are visible by the heart, where Divine names and attributes reveal themselves. Every traveler can attain these mysteries in proportion to their inclinations and current spiritual level.

Hunting is for things that are not in one’s possession. Those who have awakened to Divine truths or are on that path, are on constant watch for manifestations, mysteries, grace, blessings, knowledge, love, and spiritual delight from God. Others who have been defeated by heedlessness and live a life uninformed of truths, however, neither feel the ever-blowing winds of manifestation nor do they feel the thrill of filling their heart with a Divine benefit or radiance.

We can use “hunting” for attaining other qualities and virtues, too, like good character, mindfulness of the true spirit of faith, observance of the rights of God and His servants, to practice what one knows in theory, and to attain true sincerity and excellence. These are virtues the value of which we cannot truly appreciate. Hunting these virtues is impossible if a heart has fallen prey to fatal viruses like ostentation, pretentiousness, and fake behavior, and thus has lost its balance. Those who are in search of these virtues first have to save themselves from falling prey to evil and the carnal soul by constantly keeping their hearts pure and clean.

Secluded spots

Hunting is practiced in secluded, deserted places. It is important to find a place of seclusion where Divine manifestations are abundant, and where one can explore the horizons of the life of heart and spirit.

This does not mean it is not possible when there are others around. We can even say there are many blessings and gifts that are earned by worship conducted together with others, gifts that cannot be gained by individual worship. There are times when the enthusiasm of one individual can have an effect on the whole congregation. The sincere appeals of a prayer leader or the heartfelt tears of a person may contribute to heavenly atmosphere for the whole community. Many have lived such experiences during their visit to the Holy Ka‘ba in Mecca or the tomb of the Prophet in Medina. In such places, hearts soften and resonate with profound feelings, and eyes shed tears. When one happens to be in such a moment and hearts are open to manifestations, he or she has to make the best of themselves, in hopes of benefitting from this shower of blessings. Nevertheless, it is always a possibility that one may fall to pretentiousness when among others, which may fail you in your “hunt.” At times, even one’s overflowing feelings, amplifying voice, and even sometimes tears, are not immune from such viruses.

A soul devoted to hunting illuminations and manifestations from the Truth does his or her best to seek lonely corners or travel to serene places of solitude for moments of one-on-one togetherness with their Lord. With all awareness of being servants before God, they stand for prayer in places where no one but He sees and hears. As they stand, bow, and prostrate for a long time and removed from the world, they sometimes forget if it is their first or second prostration. At that moment of most nearness to the Divine, they glorify Him from all shortcomings. “Do not let our hearts swerve…” (Qur’an 3:18) they pray, maybe a hundred times, in the words of their Lord about matters they feel concerned. “My Lord, I have been unfair to myself by not living up to my best. I have done unfitting things. I ask Your forgiveness!” They voice their inner self. Our Lord shows favor upon such an inclination of His servants and their prayers are never left unanswered. Thus, we could perhaps say such a move by a servant is a hunt for manifestations, while moments of prostration are the most convenient times for such a hunt.

The bright darkness of the night

Nights provide some of the most convenient periods for manifestation hunting. Our biological heart, soul, and the spiritual heart (al-latifa al-Rabbaniyya) all enter a state of metaphysical resonance beyond expectations when involved with deep contemplation during the night. Reunion with God happens, if at all, at night. The brightest of all work is done in the heart of darkness. Distances are covered at night. Ascension to the heavens is possible at night. There was perhaps no single night which the Messenger of God, Prophet Muhammad, did not celebrate in prayer and contemplation, peace be upon him. At times, he would recite the verses towards the end of the Chapter “the Family of Imran,” which urge us to contemplate on the universe and creation; he would do maybe one recitation after another, turn his eyes to the heavens, and cry in witness of the Divine glory. He spent long hours at night standing, bowing, and in prostration.

O my eye, what is sleep; come, wake up at night
Watch the stars, see their travels at night

Look and observe all this wisdom in the universe
Find its Artist and be impressed with Him at night

During the day, you become heedless
Occupied with many things other than Him

Be ashamed of the Beloved, the Master of your heart,
free yourself from heedlessness

Sleeping unmindfully does not befit a lowly servant
Speak to the All-Merciful in compassion at night

If you love the Self-Sustaining One, do not sleep all night
So you may, my soul, live with the Ever-Living One at night

Lovers are awake at night; you too do not sleep
So the Beloved appears at the sight of your heart at night

The heart is the home of the Lord, purify it
So He may descend upon His throne at night

Eat less, sleep less, reach amazement, and free yourself
Then find a life of eternity and be His guest at night

Come near to people for God, day and night
O Hakki, burn in the fire of love at night

Ibrahim Hakki

Place, time, and the person’s state of being

For travelers on the path on the way to Truth, it is important to make the best of times when our hearts are softened, and our eyes and souls are filled with glory. Just as being at places like Ka‘ba, Arafat, Muzdalifa, and at the tomb of the Prophet and celebrating times of abundance like the Night of Power (laylat al-Qadr) or the special moment on Friday, are important for Muslims, it is equally important to benefit from moments when one is in spiritual states like compassion, immersion, passion, and stupor with Divine presence. These are the best of times to offer invocations.

Our Creator has solved every potential problem which living things might experience by creating one optimal solution among every alternative.These perfect solutions open new horizons for men, and they also act as guides in the development of science and technology. The book titled “Engineering in Nature” details many striking examples.1

In recent research, it has been discovered how the thread of a spider can contribute to fiber-optic technology. A crucial challenge in photonic technology is to produce the tiny optic fiber that is used as a conductor for a light beam in nano-scaled optic circuits. Yushan Yan, of the University of California in Riverside, has taken an important step forward in this technology by covering the thread from a spider web with a glass-like material and then removing the thread after the material has hardened. By utilizing this technique, it is possible to produce threads that are 1/50000th the diameter of human hair and that have a radius of 2 nanometers (1 nanometer being one billionth of a meter).

Not only will this discovery be applicable in photonic technology, it will also increase the resolution in optical microscopes, or, alternatively, these threads could be turned into nanoscale test tubes in a new breed of sensors that can suck up single molecules of a particular chemical.

A research group at the University of California cut a thread 1 centimeter long from the web of the giant spider of Madagascar, the Nepila Madagascariensis, and pasted the two ends of the thread to a card. Then they repeatedly dipped this thread into tetraethyl orthoslicate solution. After this, the thread that had undergone this process was dried and heated to a temperature of 420 Celsius. The string decreased by one fifth of its original radius and the process resulted in the production of tiny tubes with a radius of one micrometer.

There are plans to make use of the web of the Stegodyphus Pasifiu-a spider which uses a thread of a radius of 10 nanometers and which is found in the Middle East and Southern Asia. This will enable scientists to use thinner fibers. After heating, a thread with a radius of 2 nanometers is attained. Until this latest finding, it was only possible to produce fibers with an interior radius of 25 nanometers.

Fiber optic researchers do not hide their enthusiasm for this new simple and cheap technology. It is expected that it will be used in the field of supra-molecular chemistry; that is the study of very miniature environments. In these environments the reaction-speeds increase and completely different reactions occur. For such experiments carbon nano-tubes are being used at the present time. The tubes made from fibers obtained from spider webs will enable scientists to create more sensitive environments. It is also thought that it will be possible to create microscopes with a higher resolution by using tinier fiber optic catheters.

Such microscopes would be used to observe events that are shorter in duration than the wavelength of light, yet at the same time, these microscopes would not cause the sample to be harmed. Electron microscopes harm the sample since the features of the technology used necessitate this. Currently, these microscopes use a scope that has been made from very thin glass tubes. These fibers are relatively thick, measuring about 100 nanometers in radius. Yet, by means of this new technology, these new microscopes can be developed and biologists will have brand new opportunities to study events that have not been visible before. Surely, it is not possible to say that the immaculate biological structure and incredibly small thread employed by the spider can be explained by simply putting its creation down to chance or by stating that it is a product of nature.

These perfect examples that can be observed in nature will lead to fundamental changes in our understanding of the universe; they will enable great leaps in terms of making our life more comfortable and, most importantly, they will be helpful in realizing how the Divine Power and Art can be present together and be in harmony.

References 

• M. Sami Polatoz, Tabiatta Muhendislik [Engineering in Nature], Kaynak, Istanbul: 2003.
• Danny Penman, Spiders Weave a Web of Light, New Scientist,
• 22 March 2003, p. 20.

The spider’s web is woven from a special silk. This is a fibrous protein first secreted as a fluid and then stretched into strands which, because of their strength and elasticity, are extraordinarily resistant to breakage.

Garden spiders (Arena diedemata) make their webs from two different silks. The threads of the main structure are woven from a strong silk which can be stretched further (by as much as 20%) but then loses its strength. By contrast, the other kind of silk, used between the main threads, is lighter and stickier and can be expanded three times without losing its original characteristics. Under a microscope drops containing a reserve of silk can be seen at intervals on these thinner ‘hunting silks’.

After its web is complete the spider hides out of sight, somewhere on the outer strands of the web. When an insect flies into the web and struggles, the spider is alerted by the vibrations and runs out. It rapidly contains the victim’s struggle to escape by tying it up with the silk set aside for this purpose in the drops: the elasticity of the hunting silks is vital in this task. While tying it up, the spider injects the victim with the poison from behind its jaws which both paralyses the insect and acts as a digestive juice softening up the now helpless corpse. The spider then goes on injecting and sucking back fluids until the soft parts of the corpse have been digested – any skeletal parts left over are simply discarded.

Spiders put their weaving skills to a number of different uses. As well as making the insect traps we call spider webs, they weave draglines’ that help them to locate themselves and to break their fall if they should slip. Small spiders spin a sort of ‘parachute’ thread that allows them to be carried on the wind.

Some species of spider make active traps. Menneus spins an elastic net between its legs and sweeps it through the air to catch passing insects. Cledomelea dangles from one leg a blob of sticky silk at the end of a long thread and swings it out to attach its prey. Trapdoor spiders (Ctenizidae) dig a burrow closed by a silken door; when an insect ventures near, the spider darts out to capture the imprudent victim.

Spider webs are beautiful, intricate constructions: threads which serve as scaffolding during the construction process are removed once the web, a mesh of sticky and non-sticky lines, has been completed. The skill of producing webs is clearly instinctive, but the irregularity and variety of web forms shows that the skill is adapted by individual species to serve different functions and suit different circumstances – some webs hang in the air to catch insects as they fly, others are laid across the ground, both at angles calculated (presumably by experience) to lure and intercept prey.

Recent research has shown that some A. Glomosus spiders use ultraviolet rays to attract their prey. In one experiment fruit flies (Drosophila) were set free between two webs lit up by a white beam. One web was that of a A. Glomosus spider and radiated ultraviolet rays; the other was not: the flies were attracted to the former

Another remarkable species are the Dolmedes spiders which have long legs (8-10 cm) and striped, brown bodies. They live near water ponds where they have learnt, despite having very poor sight, to catch fish. Their hunting-gathering technique is of awe-inspiring dexterity and patience, rivaling that of any human fisherman. First the spider walks around on the bank to pick a site suitable for laying a web. Once that is done, it waits patiently, standing partly on water and partly on land. A special sticky secretion helps secure its hold on the surface of the water. While waiting, it prepares its poison in its mouth. When a small fish happens by, the spider plunges forward to seize it, releasing its poison into the water as it does so. As the poison begins to work, the spider turns over making its own body a sort of float for the struggling fish, carries it to land and there consumes it.

Some species of spiders do not make webs to ensnare their prey. Instead, they actively pursue their prey or lie in ambush for it. They are endowed with specially keen sight or touch sense, used respectively for hunting in daylight or in the dark. The ambushing varieties are remarkably well camouflaged – the colour and shape of their bodies making them almost invisible against the immediate background of leaves or bark or stones and sand.

One of the night-hunting spiders of the Amazon jungle spends the day hiding in crevices or in holes in trees, emerging into the jungle at night to stalk its food. Its legs spread the width of a human hand and move with utmost stealth until, when near enough, the spider makes a sudden, final dash, seizing small mammals (humming-birds, for example), stunning them with its poison, then dragging and shaking them to death. The detestation and horror this species arouses in human beings is hardly justified – its poison is not more troubling to a human than a bee sting.

Reputation and significance

Spiders have a very negative image among human beings. Perhaps the number of legs, the grotesque facial expression, the hairiness of some species, the fact that they carry a poison, but most of all, the fact that they hide in corners and come out unexpectedly – have contributed to the spiders’ bad reputation. The poison of spiders, with just two exceptions (the ‘black widow’ and the ‘brown recluse’), is relatively harmless to humans.

Spider silk cannot economically be converted into silk cloth for human use. However, it has been used for the cross-hairs of optical instruments. More recently, the silk of the tropical species Nephila has been employed in the manufacture of bullet-proof jackets. The Nephila spin huge webs strung across trees, as long as 2 metres or more, and of a silk so strong and elastic that the local peoples make very effective fishing nets from it.

On balance, it is high time human beings overcame their irrational detestation of spiders. We should be grateful to them for all the good they do for us in preserving our persons and properties, especially our crops, against devastation by insects. One authority calculated the spider population of England and Wales as of the order of 2.5 billions at any one time. This means that if (at a most conservative estimate) each spider eats 100 insects a year, then the total number of insects consumed by spiders is 250 billions annually.

REFERENCES

‘Spiders’ Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall’s Corporation.

Buton, M. & Buton, R. (1975) Enevlopedia of Insects and Arachnids, BPC Publishing Ltd, London.

Gerald, L. & Wood, F.Z.S. (1982) The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats, Guinness Superlative Ltd, London.

Waterson, AR. (ed.) (t975), Collins Enevlopedia of Animals, William Collins Sons & Co Ltd, London and Glasgow.

SPIDERS IN GUINESS BOOK OF RECORDS

The largest and the heaviest spider: The Guyanan ‘bird-eating’ spider (Theraphosa

blondi) of South America has long been credited with the ‘largest spider’ title. A male specimen with a leg-span of 254mm (10 in) and a body length of 89mm (3.5 in) weighed just under 57g (2 oz).

The smallest spiders are the midget spiders (Symphytognathidae), the tiniest of which is the pale yellow Patu marplesi of Western Samoa, S.W. Pacific. A male specimen found in moss at an altitude of 610m (2000 if) measured 0.43mm (0.07 in), which means it is half the size of a full-stop on this page!

The largest spider webs are the aerial ones spun by the tropical orb weavers of the genus Nephila. Several examples found in the Karrakpur Hills near Monghyr, central Bihar, India measured 1.5m (5ft) in diameter (about 4.79m (1 5ft 9in) in circumference) and had long supporting guy-lines up to 6.1 m (2Oft) in length.

The smallest webs in the world are the aerial ones spun by midget spiders. That of the orb weaver Chasmoeephaion armaturn of New Zealand measures about 9-10mm (O.35-0.39in.) in diameter which means it is half the size of a small postage stamp.

The highest speed recorded for a spider on a level surface is 53cm/s (1 .73ft/s) (= 1.90km/h; 1.18 miles/h) for a female house spider, Tegenaria atrica. This may not seem very fast, but the spider covers a distance equivalent to 330 times its own body length in ten seconds.