النَّاسُ كَإِبِلٍ مِائَةٍ لَا تَجِدُ فِيهَا رَاحِلَةً
People are like a hundred camels among which a suitable mount is scarcely found.
The particle of comparison makes the simile explicit. If the entire camel scene is then used for a human group without that comparison structure, its rhetorical treatment differs. Ignoring the wording obscures the distinction between simile and representational metaphor.
Both forms communicate the scarcity of the desired quality. One directly states likeness; the other evokes the first scene as an image applied to a new situation.