Bilal and the Ant Who Knew His Name

Bilal was building the greatest LEGO castle in the history of LEGO castles when he saw it: a tiny black ant marching right across his castle's drawbridge like he owned the place. Bilal raised one finger to flick the ant away — and the ant looked up and said, very politely, 'Assalamu alaikum, Bilal.'

Bilal froze. His finger hovered in the air. 'How… how do you know my name?' The ant adjusted what looked like a very small hat. 'Ants know lots of things. We have a whole queen and an army and a job to do. Surah An-Naml in the Quran is literally named after us. We get a chapter, Bilal. A whole chapter.'

Bilal sat down cross-legged, completely amazed. The ant told him how Prophet Sulayman alayhi salaam once heard a tiny ant warning the other ants to get out of the way of his soldiers. 'And do you know what Prophet Sulayman did?' said the ant. 'He smiled. He asked Allah to help him be grateful. He didn't step on us. He listened.'

Bilal looked at his giant finger. It suddenly felt very big and very rude. 'I'm sorry,' he whispered. 'I was going to squish you.' The ant patted his finger kindly with one tiny leg. 'That's okay. Now you know. Small things matter to Allah. Even us.'

After that day, Bilal looked where he stepped. He moved spiders outside instead of screaming. He once held up an entire family picnic because a line of ants was crossing the path and he refused to let anyone walk through them. His sister called him weird. Bilal didn't mind. He had been called 'Bilal' by an ant. That made him, in his opinion, basically a superhero.