“Indeed, Allah is not timid to set forth an example—that of a mosquito or what is above it.”

558- Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā narrated to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatāda, who said: When Allah mentioned the spider and the fly, the polytheists said: “Why are the spider and the fly mentioned?” So Allah revealed: “Indeed, Allah is not timid to set forth an example—that of a mosquito or what is above it.” (1)

Each of the commentators whose opinion we have mentioned regarding this verse and the reason for its revelation adopted a specific view. However, the most correct of these opinions and closest to the truth is what we mentioned from the statement of Ibn Masʿūd and Ibn ʿAbbās.

That is because Allah—majestic is His mention—informed His servants that He is not timid to set forth an example—that of a mosquito or what is above it—immediately following examples that preceded in this surah, which He struck for the hypocrites, rather than the examples He struck in all the other surahs. Therefore, for this statement—meaning His statement: “Indeed, Allah is not timid to set forth an example”—to be a response to the denial by the disbelievers and hypocrites of the examples He struck for them in this surah is more worthy and proper than it being a response to their denial of the examples He struck for them in other surahs.

If someone were to say: What necessitated it being a response to their denial of the examples He struck in all the other surahs is that the examples Allah struck for them and their deities in other surahs are consistent in meaning with what He informed of—that He is not timid to set forth as an example—since some of them were likening their deities to the spider, and some were comparing them in weakness and humiliation to the fly, whereas no mention of any of that is present in this surah, such that it could be said: “Indeed, Allah is not timid to set forth an example.” (2)