Sleep tight, don't let the...

Written by Sulaiman Awan

...bed bugs bite!

So goes the old adage but the city of New York has recently been besieged by an invasion of bed bugs. The little critters have taken over the city and many of its residents have been reduced to panic.

Some of the biggest names in town have had to declare infestations: the huge Niketown store on 57th Street, Google's headquarters, Bloomingdales, the BBC, many upmarket clothing retailers, Broadway theatres, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the UN and even the Empire State Building. In fact, the problem has reached such epidemic proportions – some 24,000 recorded complaints of infestation over the past 12 months – that the mayor of New York, media mogul Michael Bloomberg, has established a "bedbug advisory board" and is soon to appoint a "bedbug tsar".

The common bedbug, Cimex lectularius, which generally feasts on the blood of sleeping humans, was nearly eradicated in the US in the 1950s via the liberal application of potent pesticides, including the now banned toxic chemical DDT. But the insects, which are oval in shape, flattish and grow to about the size of a small apple seed, survived in other parts of the world and have made an unexpected and unwelcome return since the late 1990s.

Having gorged themselves on human blood, the bugs retreat to their hiding places in bed frames, carpets, under floorboards, behind wall hangings, in clothing and in virtually any nook or cranny. They can live for up to a year without feeding, which makes them very hard to eradicate. And of course, there is a stigma attached to having had bedbugs. No-one wants to experience the opprobrium resulting from a public disclosure of infestation and, just like the effect of the “nit-nurse” visiting school, the very thought of the parasites set many people off itching and are a cause of psychological distress.

But the US is not alone in having suffered a plague of insects. Here in the UK, we have our own pest problems. As local authorities are phasing out free pest control services, Britain’s population of rats, mice, cockroaches, bedbugs, wasps and moths is growing. Bedbug infestations have risen by 38% since 1992, while this year's call-out rate to report wasp nests was up 231% compared to last year.

These afflictions may well be the symptoms of increased international travel, the banning of DDT, dwindling local council provision and climate change. However, as Muslims our attention is drawn immediately to the parallels with the vivid story of Fir'awn (Pharaoh) in the Quran, upon whom Allah sent plagues of vermin as punishment for his disbelief and that of his people. May Allah protect us from disbelief and from His punishment.

"And they [Pharaoh's people] said [to Moses]: 'Whatever sign you may produce before us in order to cast a spell upon us thereby, we shall not believe you!'

"Thereupon We let loose upon them floods, and [plagues of] locusts, and lice, and frogs, and [water turning into] blood, distinct signs [all]: but they gloried in their arrogance, for they were people lost in sin. 
And whenever a plague struck them, they would cry: 'O Moses, pray for us to your Sustainer on the strength of the covenant [of prophethood] which He has made with you! If you remove this plague from us, we will truly believe in you and will let the children of Israel go with you!'

"But whenever We removed the plague from them, giving them time to make good their promise, lo, they would break their word.

"And so We inflicted Our retribution on them, and caused them to drown in the sea, because they had given the lie to Our messages and had been heedless of them."
(7:132-136)