As-Sajda (The Prostration)

27. “Have they not seen that We drive the water to the parched land and We bring forth thereby crops of which their cattle and themselves eat? Will they not then see?”

The training method of the Holy Qur’an is that for guiding people it uses some of the natural transformations.

The movement of the clouds which have moist, and the rainfall in the zones far from the sea, is not casual, but it is done by the Wise will of Allah.

This verse points to one of the most important bounties of Allah which is the cause of cultivation of all lands and the means of the life of all living creatures, in order to make clear that in the same manner that Allah, the Almighty, is able to destroy the habitable lands of the transgressors, He can flourish the ruin and dead lands, too, and bestow all kinds of merits on His servants.

It says:

“Have they not seen that We drive the water to the parched land and We bring forth thereby crops of which their cattle and themselves eat? Will they not then see?”

The Arabic term /juruz/ means a land where plants have been rooted out from, or, in other words, there grows no plant from it. It is originally derived from /jaraz/ with the sense of ‘to cut off’ and ‘to chop off’. As if any kind of plant had been cut off from such a land, or the land itself had cut those plants.

It is interesting that the Arabic phrase /nusuq-ul-ma’/ (we drive the water) has been applied here. This indicates that for its heaviness the nature of water appropriates that it stays on the land and in ditches, and because of its being liquid it must naturally go down in the depth of the ground, but when Allah’s command comes, it loses its nature and changes into some light vapour which goes everywhere by the blow of an ordinary simple wind.

Yes, these very pieces of cloud that are in the sky are some large seas of sweet water which, by Allah’s command and by the help of winds, are sent toward the dry lands.

Verily if rain did not fall a great deal of lands would not receive a drop of water, even if supposing there were some rivers full of water they might not flow over them.

But now we see that by this grace of Allah there have grown some forests, plenty of trees and many plants on a lot of high mountains, in impracticable slopes and high hills.

This wonderful power of natural irrigation is found only in the nature of rain, and nothing else can afford it.

The Arabic word /zar‘/ has a vast meaning which envelops any plant and tree, though in applications it is sometimes used for trees.

The word ‘cattle’ is mentioned in this verse before ‘men’ and it may be for the sake that the cattle feed entirely from plants while men feed on both plants and the meat of cattle. Or for the sake that as soon as plants grow they are fit for the use of cattle, while the use of plants for men often postpones to later times when the plants deliver their seed and fruit to them to consume.

It is interesting that at the end of the verse the phrase:

“Will they not then see?”

is mentioned, while at the end of the previous verse the phrase:

“…do they not then hear?”,

has come. This difference is for the sake that everybody sees the scene of lands that are quickened by the descent of rain by the eyes while they often hear the details concerning the former nations in the form of some news.

It is understood from then whole explanations of the two abovementioned verses that Allah says to this disobedient group that they may open their eyes and ears to see and hear the facts in order to contemplate that how one day He (s.w.t.) commanded the winds to rain the castles and buildings of the People of ‘Ad and, on another day, He commands the same winds to take clouds toward the dead lands and cause them to become cultivated and green. Do they not yet submit to such a Power?