Sayid and the Squid

Sayid took advantage of the summer vacation by swimming as much as he could. His father gave him a pair of goggles so he could see underwater. Sayid was really entranced by the beautiful wonders he saw when he was in the water. Once when he was looking under the water with his goggles, he saw something that did not look like a fish.

"Hey, who are you?" Sayid called.

"No wonder you're surprised, Sayid!" the creature called back. "I'm a squid. People often think of us as fish; although we are very different. For example, we don't have a single bone in our bodies."

Sayid was puzzled, "If you don't have any bones in your body, how do you move?" he asked.

"If you want to know the truth," replied the squid, "We can move in ways that would surprise you. Our bodies are very soft and our skin is very thick. We have muscles under our skin that we use to take water into our bodies and then blow it out hard. That is how we can swim."

"Can you tell me exactly how you do it?" asked Sayid.

The squid explained: "We have two pocket-like openings on each side of our heads. Through these, we draw water into a cavity in our bodies, and then we expel this water with great pressure through a narrow pipe just under our heads. With the force created, we can move quickly in the opposite direction to the water we expel. And we can also escape very quickly from any enemy chasing us."

"OK," said Sayid, "Let's say that you are not quick enough to escape; what do you do then?"

"If we are not quick enough to get away," continued the squid, "We squirt a cloud of dark colored ink at our enemy, which confuses them. Just a few seconds is all we need. Our enemy can't see us behind the dark cloud and we can get away."

Sayid was impressed: "Allah has especially equipped you for every difficulty you may face. I don't think that we humans or any other creature could ever have acquired these abilities by ourselves."

The squid agreed: "You're right, Sayid. This comes from the supreme creative knowledge of Almighty Allah. He has created all the creatures you see with their marvelous qualities. No creature can acquire these abilities by itself. Allah's power and knowledge is everywhere, and there is no power apart from Him."

"I'm very happy to have met you, Mr. Squid. Thank you for the information," said Sayid as he swam off.