Website: www.aaiil.uk
Trees — Lessons we
can learn from them, as mentioned in the Holy Quran
Friday
Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz,
for Lahore
Ahmadiyya UK, 4 July 2025
|
“Do you not see how Allah sets
forth a parable of a good word as a good tree, whose root is firm and whose
branches are high, yielding its fruit in every season by the permission of
its Lord? And Allah sets forth parables for people that they may be mindful.
And the parable of an evil word is as an evil tree pulled up from the earth’s
surface; it has no stability.” — ch. 14, Ibrāhīm, v. 24–26 |
اَلَمۡ
تَرَ کَیۡفَ
ضَرَبَ اللّٰہُ
مَثَلًا
کَلِمَۃً طَیِّبَۃً
کَشَجَرَۃٍ
طَیِّبَۃٍ
اَصۡلُہَا
ثَابِتٌ وَّ
فَرۡعُہَا
فِی
السَّمَآءِ
﴿ۙ۲۴﴾ تُؤۡتِیۡۤ
اُکُلَہَا
کُلَّ حِیۡنٍۭ
بِاِذۡنِ
رَبِّہَا ؕ
وَ یَضۡرِبُ
اللّٰہُ الۡاَمۡثَالَ
لِلنَّاسِ
لَعَلَّہُمۡ
یَتَذَکَّرُوۡنَ
﴿۲۵﴾ وَ مَثَلُ
کَلِمَۃٍ
خَبِیۡثَۃٍ
کَشَجَرَۃٍ
خَبِیۡثَۃِۣ
اجۡتُثَّتۡ
مِنۡ فَوۡقِ
الۡاَرۡضِ
مَا لَہَا
مِنۡ
قَرَارٍ ﴿۲۶﴾ |
In view of
our outing to Kew Gardens tomorrow, a very appropriate topic for today’s khutba
is the mention of trees in the Quran. The Quran contains mention of many
creations and workings in nature from which humans benefit, such as the earth
itself, the sun, the moon and the stars, and on earth day, night, clouds, wind,
rain, mountains, rivers, fruits, animals, bees, etc. However, it is not a
textbook of science or study of nature, but a book for our moral guidance.
Therefore, it is asking us to learn lessons about our human life by observing
the creation of God and looking at what that creation does for us.
The verses
I have recited compare a good word we utter, a word of truth, to a good tree,
and compare false beliefs to a bad tree. Three times in these verses the word mathal
is used, which means “example”, or in older English it is called a parable.
Apart from saying here that Allah gives the example of a good word as a good
tree, and an evil word as an evil tree, it is also said that “Allah sets forth
parables (or gives examples) for people that they may be mindful.” The examples
are given for people to think about.
What has been translated as “a good
word” is kalimah ṭayyibah in Arabic. This term is also applied to
the Muslim declaration of faith, Lā ilāha ill-Allāh, Muḥammad-ur
rasūlullāh, ‘There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger
of Allah’. These verses convey that true belief is like a good tree. It is
firmly-rooted by means of proofs and arguments in its favour. It cannot be
uprooted by any argument directed against it, or any kind of force. It spreads
far and wide. It doesn’t remain hidden, but can be seen from a long way away.
Every season, or at regular periods in history, its fruits fall on people and
they are nourished by them. People find shade and shelter under this tree from
the blazing sun, meaning that they find solace and comfort in that true faith
when they are facing difficulties, when they are under persecution, or when
their religion is being subjected to criticism and objections. The trees in
forests and gardens require rain and water to remain alive. Likewise the tree
of faith requires revelation from God to be sent down, through prophets or
mujaddids, to keep it alive. An evil word, or a wrong belief, is like a tree
whose root has been pulled out from the earth. It is not supported by anything,
by any facts or arguments. It cannot help people or nourish them.
A good tree can also be compared to the
ideal Muslim. There is a hadith in Bukhari that the Holy Prophet asked his
Companions:
“Tell me, which tree is like a Muslim, ‘yielding its
fruit in every season by the permission of its Lord’ (in the words of verse
14:25 above), whose leaves do not fall.”
When no one replied, the Holy Prophet
said:
“It is the date-palm tree” (hadith 6144).
This hadith occurs in several
different forms in Bukhari. What he meant was that just as a date tree is of
benefit to everyone, so should a Muslim be. In another hadith, a Muslim under
trials and tribulations is compared to a fresh green plant. The Holy Prophet
said:
“Its leaves bend in whichever direction the wind
blows; when the wind is still it stands upright. This is how the believer is
saved from calamities. The wrongdoer is like the pine tree. It remains upright
until Allah breaks it when He wills” (hadith 5644, 7466).
The meaning of this hadith is that
when facing trials and tribulations, a Muslim bows to Allah for help, and also
he responds to the pressure by mending his ways, instead of standing still. So
he survives the storm. The wrongdoer is arrogant. He remains in place, without
taking notice of what the storm is telling him to do, and is thus destroyed by
the storm. In military history this has happened to armies as well. Some
armies, facing a powerful enemy, have been flexible in their movements, and
retreated to better positions and survived. Others remained in place rigidly,
thinking that they could withstand the enemy’s strength, but were overcome.
This also teaches us that a Muslim must be flexible in meeting challenges that
he is confronted with, and bring about the necessary change in himself in
response; otherwise, just standing still stubbornly means he would be
destroyed.
In another place the Quran has used
the illustration of a tree’s functions to show us the nature of life after
death. In reference to people doubting that there is a life after death for
humans, the Quran puts forward their question:
“Who will give life to the bones, when they are
rotten?” (36:78)
The reply given by Allah is as
follows:
“He will give life to them, Who brought them into
existence at first, and He is Knower of all creation, Who produced fire for you
out of the green tree, so that with it you kindle” (36:79–80).
The reply is that, firstly, God Who
gave humans their first life, out of nothing, can give them another life after
death. “He is Knower of all creation” means that there are many kinds of
creation in Allah’s knowledge. The life after death is a different kind of life
from the life on earth that we know. Then the Quran gives the illustration of
the tree, to show that Allah can raise humans to life after their death.
The statement, that God “produced
fire for you out of the green tree, so that with it you kindle (or light
something up)”, as understood by people in the time of the Holy Prophet
Muhammad, would mean that they obtain fire from trees, by rubbing their branches
together, or by burning wood from trees. Modern knowledge has proved that the
discovery of producing fire by ancient humans was almost the most important
discovery ever made in human history, second only in importance to the
development of language for communication. The control of fire by early humans
is said to have given them a critical technology, which enabled the cooking of
food, provided warmth and lighting, and a way of producing advanced tools. In
particular, the use of fire to cook food made humans what they are today, in
their bodies and in their social interactions. Researchers have concluded that
using fire to cook food, rather than eating raw food, led to humans developing
large brains, and the limb proportions that we see now. If we see fire being
lit somewhere, we cannot imagine that this could be the thing by means of which
our whole present-day life has come about. Similarly, looking at our human
physical life, it is not possible to imagine how it could lead to another kind
of higher life. The Quran is presenting this illustration to show that God can
bring about another kind of life, the life after death, from our present lives.
Another point arises out of the
statement, that God “produced fire for you out of the green tree, so that with
it you kindle (or light something up)”, if we consider the mention of “green”
here. The substance in leaves and trees which gives them their green colour is
called chlorophyll by modern science. When sunlight falls on the plant or tree,
this substance absorbs energy from that light. The tree takes in water and
minerals through its roots in the ground and it takes in carbon dioxide gas
from the air, and uses the energy which the green substance had absorbed, to
make oxygen and glucose from water, minerals and carbon dioxide. The oxygen is
released into the air and serves as the oxygen which we breathe. The glucose
eventually becomes the food, for example potatoes or wheat, and oils such as
olive oil that are produced by the tree. These are then consumed by animals and
humans. This process is so vital that the Encyclopaedia Britannica tells us
that if it stopped:
“there would soon be little food or other organic
matter on Earth. Most organisms would disappear, and in time Earth’s atmosphere
would become nearly devoid of gaseous oxygen”.
What the Quran may be indicating is
that trees sustain a higher form of life than the trees themselves are. The
tree absorbs simpler ingredients and converts them into more complex substances
within itself. Similarly, from our physical body of this world is created a
higher form of life, and when the physical body reaches its end and becomes
rotten bones, the higher body, which is shaped by our deeds, continues to
remain alive.
There are many other verses of the
Quran containing mention of trees in different contexts. Spiritually it
describes the Holy Prophet Muhammad as reaching a place called “the furthest
lote-tree” (53:14). Tree here means knowledge and this signifies that the Holy
Prophet reached up to the utmost spiritual knowledge, beyond which no human can
go. The first thing that those who are believers, and do good deeds, are
promised in the Quran, in verse 25 of chapter 2, are “Gardens in which rivers
flow”, in which they will be offered the fruits of those gardens. In two places
in the Quran, before describing this garden, it is said that it is an example
or illustration. It is not a physical garden. The true belief of the believers,
which they showed in this world, turns into a garden of trees in the next
world, and their constant good deeds done in this life turn into flowing rivers
in the next life. And they find the fruits of their works in this life as
fruits in the next life.
Lastly, it is important to note that
the Quran mentions also the gardens of this world. It tells us that Allah
produces gardens in which fruits of different kinds grow, fruits which are like
each other but yet different from each other (6:99, 6:141). It says that Allah
causes “beautiful gardens to grow: it is not possible for you to make their
trees grow” (27:60). It mentions that there are adjacent tracts of ground, each
growing something different, some of them sharing roots and others having
individual roots, yet all are watered with the same water (13:4).
In one place the Quran says:
Do you see the fire that you kindle? Is it you who
produce the tree or is it Allah? (56:72)
This suggests that as trees are not
our creation we can’t do with them whatever we wish. We must keep the natural
system going by which trees carry out their functions, and not impede that
system. Also, if we keep up research into how this natural system of plant
growth works, we will realise how miraculous and beyond human power it is, and
that it can only be the work of God.
So may Allah enable us to continue
studying His creation and learning from it — ameen.
Website: www.aaiil.uk