Islam on Vegetation/Plants

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

Vegetation/plants has been described in the Qur’an as a special blessing of god. According to the Qur’an Paradise is a world of highest quality, where the believers, God’s favored servants, will be inhabited. This abode has been called Paradise, meaning a garden, which is a special feature of paradise, referred to in the Qur’an as ‘beautiful mansions in Gardens of eternity." (61:12)

A believer is God’s desired person. What this desired person is like. In the Qur’an he has been likened to a tree (14:24). This is a very meaningful simile. As we all know man receives shade, fruits and flowers from the tree. The sight of a green tree cools the eyes of the people. All such qualities should be found in the believers/God worshippers. Human beings should live in society in a manner that the way give comfort to everyone, they may benefit everyone, they may become a source of coolness to all.

There is a hadith to this effect. The Prophet of Islam said: The believer is like a gentle plant. When the winds blow it does not show haughtiness, instead it swerves to and from with the wind, and when the winds are not blowing it stands in position once again. Exactly the same is the case with the God worshipper. A true believer lives among the people with gentleness. He does not display arrogance. His way is that of adjustment and not of clash and confrontation. He follows the principle of persuasion and avoids the way of violence.

At one point in the Qur’an honey has been mentioned in particular. Honey a valuable drink is produced from the plants. The Qur’an tells us about honey that ‘therein is healing for men’ (16:69. This indicates symbolically that besides food and drink plants have another special quality that of having the healing effect. It is a fact that most of the medicine are produced from plants. This healing attributes of the plants is so great that even when a tiger, a carnivorous animal, takes ill, he eats grass to cure himself. So God has granted us double blessings in the form of plants. They serve both as food and as medicine.

The Qur’an repeatedly mentions vegetation/plants as a special blessings of God. Here are some verses in this regard:

Mentioning the initial stage of creation the Qur’an states that "after creating the earth God drew out therefrom its water and its pasture" (79:31). Water and vegetation are closely related to one another without water vegetation cannot come into existence. This precious vegetation is available nowhere in the vast expanses of the universe but on earth. That is why the existence of the living things too exist only on earth, because the existence of life is not possible without vegetation. A verse in the Qur’an is as follows:

"Then let man look at his foot (and how we provide it) for that we pour forth water in abundance. And we split the earth in fragments. And produce therein grain, and grapes and the fresh vegetation, and olives and data,and enclosed gardens, dense with lofty trees, and fruits and fodder, a provision for you and your cattle" (80:24-23).

This shows that God has made the vegetation as special food for both men and animals. Through vegetation human body receives all its necessary requirements/elements which are essential for biological existence. Along with it such elements too are placed in vegetation as produce resistance to various ailments. Furthermore God has also added varied tastes to these vegetation so that these serve not only as simple food but also as tasty food. Here is a verse in the Qur’an:

"It is He who produced gardens with trellises and without, and dates, and tilt with produce of all kinds, and olives and pomegranates, similar (in kind) and different (in variety). Eat of their fruit in their season, but render the dues that are proper on the day that the harvest is gathered. But waste not by excess. For God loves not the wasters" (6:142)

This verse mentions vegetables, fruits and dry-fruits. We are told that God has made all these things to serve as food for man. God desires that man should achieve these food products by farming and gardening. Then along with eating them himself he should also feed others and thank God for His blessings.

According to the Qur’an, from various aspects, farming and gardening are means of human existence, these provide both spiritual as well as physical food for man.

The Prophet of Islam observed: when a person plants a tree and the tree grows and yields fruit, then human beings and birds eat its fruit, this will be an act of charity on the part of the planter of the tree.In a similar vein there is another hadith. The Prophet once observed: "If you have a plant in your hand and you can see the Doomsday approaching, even then, without any further delay, you should sow/put the plant in the earth.

Such traditions show how great importance is attached to vegetation in Islam. In this way Islam produces the spirit in man that he should make earth a green, verdant to the extent that even if there is fear that after his plantation an earthquake was to come and the earth were going to be destroyed in its way. This is the education of plantation for the sake of plantation.