Plants

Holy Qur'an 13/4
Dear viewers, I wish you peace and prosperity and assure you the good-will and respect that I harbor in my heart for all with the traditional salaam, Assalam alaikum wa rehmatullah wa barakatuhu!
 
A greeting of peace has no meaning if we do not behave in a manner that promotes and ensures peace for the entire humanity. It is our positive attitude and civilized words, actions and responses to provocations and trying situations which will ensure peace. Lets us see today how our CREATOR has shown us to conduct ourselves in the society using a similitude of a tree and how this humble creation of GOD ALMIGHTY can give us insights into most vital issues of our life. Lets us see what we can learn from plants!
 

From lush tropical rain-forests to stark desert lands, from lofty mountain tops to shimmering sea-shores, we find an array of plants that scientists have estimated to be in the range of 422,000 species. The astounding diversity of the plant kingdom, which incorporates trees, flowering plants, ferns, mosses, seaweed and algae, has enthralled botanists for centuries. This diversity is described in the Qur’an 13/4 as follows:
 
 
It is not humanly possible to correspond the exact meaning of these Divine Verses in any earthly language. My humble attempt to get closer to its meaning is:
“And in the earth, there are tracts different in color and nature, and gardens of vines, and fields of grain, and trees like date palms growing into single stem root or otherwise, though irrigated with the same water; yet some of them WE make more excellent than others in taste. Verily! In these things there are enough signs for the people who want to use their reason.”
 
Plants, the colorful garments of the earth, play a key role in protecting life on this planet. Trees, which cover a third of the earth’s surface, regulate the climate of the earth by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. In addition, plants provide nourishment, medicines, shelter, fuel and clothing to humankind and animals alike. Plants also fulfill a beautifying and decorative function.
 
All of us know what seeds look like, and know that plants arise from seeds. But we seldom wonder how so many varieties of plants can germinate from something so small and seemingly lifeless, or how the seeds come to contain coded information or genetic code in their genes, that determines these plants’ characteristics.
 
Each seed produces an extremely well-organized life form with its own circulatory system and roots for assimilation of soil nutrients. Even an intelligent human artist finds it difficult to draw a good picture of a tree, much less the details of the roots and branches. But a seed produces a living version of this extremely complex shape, complete with all of its systems.
 
It is apparent that within the seed is concealed a comprehensive knowledge. It cannot be claimed that the cells of the materials that make up the seed are responsible for genetic code or knowledge, but this knowledge must be inserted into the seed in the form of genetic code. But who inserted it? Who brought a live tree from a seed? HE says in chapter 6/95
“Verily, ALLAH is the One who splits the seeds and the fruit-kernel, and ALLAH causes the life to succeed from the non-living, and HE is the One to cause the non-living to succeed from the living. This is ALLAH, The LORD Supreme! Then how perverted are your minds!”
 
When thinking through these steps, one arrives at some very important truths. The seed, dry and seemingly lifeless, is capable of doing nothing of its own accord. This knowledge in the form of genetic code has been implanted in seeds by a far greater unrivalled power and that is GOD. One may call HIM The Nature or else, that doesn’t matter. GOD Creates seeds with the knowledge and system to develop into plants. Each seed cast on the ground is enveloped in GOD’s knowledge, with which it germinates and grows.
 

In chapter 6/99 ALMIGHTY GOD call our minds:
 
“And it is GOD ALMIGHTY Who causes water to come down from the sky! Thus WE bring forth plants of every type with it, and WE produce green vegetation from it. And out of this, WE bring- forth close-compounded grains and pulses; and out of the spathe of the palm trees, clusters of dates hanging low and near; and there are gardens of grape like fruits, and olive like multiply useful fruit-trees, and fruits like pomegranate; each similar in kind yet different in variety: Look at it when they comes to fruiting and their ripening! Verily, in all these there are messages indeed for people who want to accept the realities!”
 
In all the times of human history, all these things are witnessed and will be witnessed till the end. But why our Creator is mentioning it here is the question! Does HE want something to us to fulfill? Does HE wants to forbid us for not attempting some thing? Let us refer here 6/141 for it:
 
 
“And it is GOD ALMIGHTY Who has brought into being gardens of fruit-tries, trellised and also growing on their own stalk, and the date-palm, and fields bearing multiform of pulses and grains, and the trees like olive having multiple use, and the pomegranate like fruits (can be stored for long time): all are resembling one another and yet so different in variety! Consume their fruits when it ripens but pay dues of the have-nots on its harvest day. And do not overdo things, for ALLAH does not love extravagant people!”
 

In the verse, there is mentioning of different kind of fruit trees with dates, pulses, olive and pomegranate due to their special qualities, but let us concentrate on the concluding part of it. GOD ALMIGHTY says that do not forget the dues of the deprived ones and provide them their due share on the harvest day itself. It is a mercy of your LORD who caused all the crops to grow in your field, but HE had kept the shares of HIS other creatures that HE wants to provide through you. The Prophet (s.a.w.s) had instructed us to pay the poor-due ten percent of the crop if it is watered by rains only. And if we watered it through wells and canals, the due will be fiver percent, net of the crop or its value, but on every harvesting. May we get 4 or 5 crops in a year. The full import of the verse would be according to me, that in all our possessions or incomes, we should not forget our fellow-men to share. Was it possible for us to get the crop, if all the natural phenomena will not support us favorably? In chapter 27/60, our LORD asks us:
“O Mohammed (s.a.w.s), ask: Who created the heavens and the earth, and who sends down for you life-giving water from the sky? It is WE, ALMIGHTY who by this system causes lovely orchards of shining beauty to grow! O mankind! It is not in your power, nor have you other way to cause even one single of its trees to grow!
Could there be any divine power besides ALMIGHTY GOD? Not at all! But the mankind still make others parallel to ALLAH without any reason and proof!”
 
According to me, once again the import of the verse would be that due to all favorable natural support, we are able to get from a single dead-like seed or kernel countless fruits, pulses or grains. Who made all the natural phenomena to let us grow the crops? From sky to earth, from sun to stars, from soil to its fertility, from water and its moisture, the One and Only GOD created all and made all of it favorable to us. How can we assume or make any one parallel to the ALMIGHTY ONE? It is ridiculous to give divinity to any other than GOD ALMIGHTY. It is one of HIS wonders that HE designed for us to ignite from green wood, full of moisture and get the energy which HE describes in chapter 36/80:
“It is ALMIGHTY GOD Who kindles-out for you, from so green and moisture-full trees, fire!!!! And you ignite it to get energy for you out of it!!”
 
From this fire only, which we are getting from wood, coal, petroleum and nuclear, all our energy resources depend. GOD ALMIGHTY never asked us nor took our suggestion how to create or design all these. It is HIS master plan and divine wisdom. We are not able to get any kind of energy if any of the natural sources is not available with us. HE reminds us in chapter 56/72:
“O mankind! Have you ever considered the fire which you kindle?”
“Are you the ones who bring the tree and its wood to grow and get it into being to get the energy? Or it is WE, The ALMIGHTY Who causes it to get up from dead-like seed into and energy providing tree?”
 
It should be now our humbleness to acknowledge the might of our LORD. It must be our duty to surrender ourselves to HIS Glory. It is our responsibility to be careful for the needs of others who don not have. It is moral to be humble and fruitful for others like a fruit tree. It should be over etiquette to provide shelter for those who are suffering the odds of the life and provide them shadow like a big tree. >
 
I pray and supplicate to my LORD to make me humble and fruitful for all and thank you for patiently listening. GOD blesses us all. Thank you very much.