2/26-27 — The gnat
"God is not ashamed to strike a comparison with a gnat, or with what is above it. Those who believe know that it is the truth from their Lord; those who cover over say 'what did God mean by this comparison?' By it He leads many astray, and by it He guides many aright."
It is transmitted in the classical commentaries that this verse came down after mockery was made of the Qurʾān's giving small and seemingly trivial creatures (the fly, the spider, the ant) as examples. The objection was: does an exalted book speak of things as small as this?
The answer is that the size of the example is immaterial: the value of a comparison comes not from the dimensions of the thing compared but from the truth of what it shows. Small is not low.
فَمَا فَوْقَهَا — the expression "what is above it" has been understood in two ways: above in size (something larger), or above in smallness (something smaller still). The second reading is possible in Arabic and appears better suited to the context: "a gnat, or even something smaller".
The most important sentence of the verse is its last: the same example leads many astray and guides many aright.
The text is one. The outcomes are two. What produces the difference between them is not the text but the way the reader approaches it. This completes the measure of the sūra's second verse: the book was a guidance "for those who guard themselves". The same water makes one plant grow and rots another; the difference is not in the water but in the seed.