Allah mentions plants numerous times in the Qur’an and each time He speaks about them He gives a scientific truth that is currently unknown to most people. That is the distinction between male and female plants. In this article we will have a closer look at these verses of Qur’an but let’s start with the scientific point of view.
Male and Female Plants
For many people, the concept of the male and female plant is perplexing, exemplified by the variations throughout the plant kingdom. However, in plants, as with most animals, sperm is produced by the male parts and eggs are produced by the female parts.
Some plants are either male or female. The ginkgo tree, kiwi fruit, hemp, and willow all have individuals that produce only pollen or seeds. These plants are known as dioecious species and their reproductive strategy ensures genetic outcrossing.
In some plants, both female and male parts occur on the same individual plant. This is called monoecy. Some monoecious plants are roses, lilies, and tulips, and you can tell that a plant is monoecious if you see both male (staminate) and female (pistillate) flowers on one plant.
Other monoecious plants, such as squashes, corn and birches, also have unisexual flowers. This means that some flowers are male and some are female, but both types are formed on the same individual plant.
Pollination of Plants
Pollination can happen in various ways. Certain plants may be pollinated by animals, wind currents, or insects.
Pollination by wind: Pollen from male cones must be blown by the wind to female cones for pollination to occur.
Pollination by insects: A flower’s scent and bright colors attract insects or hummingbirds that feed on nectar. The insects’ movement from one flower to the next facilitates pollination, transporting the pollen from a male part of a flower to a female part of another flower (the stigma and the ovule).
German naturalist and theologist Christian Konrad Sprengel pioneered research on the sexuality of plants. In the 1790s, he was the first to recognize that flowers attract insects for cross-pollination, and he laid the foundations for modern study in floral biology and anthecology. However, his work was not widely recognized until 50 years later, when Charles Darwin confirmed several observations Sprengel had made about the relationship between insects and fertilization.
What does the Quran say about male and female plants?
"He Who has, made for you the earth like a carpet spread out; has enabled you to go about therein by roads (and channels); and has sent down water from the sky." With it have We produced diverse pairs of plants each separate from the others.
And the earth- We have spread it out, and set thereon mountains standing firm, and produced therein every kind of beautiful growth (in pairs)
And He is the One Who spread out the earth and placed firm mountains and rivers upon it, and created fruits of every kind in pairs. He covers the day with night. Surely in this are signs for those who reflect.
Closer look at these verses
Some might argue that the pairs could mean anything such as pairs of colors, etc. To better understand that by these “pairs”, Allah actually means male and female, a closer look is required at the language used in these verses.
The words that were used in these verses are either azwaj or zawjayni. Both of them are derived from the root word zawj, which is translated as spouse.
- The word azwaj is the plural form of zawj
- The word zawjayni is the dual form of zawj
These verses of the Quran reveal how God created plants in pairs, indicating a great truth that was only discovered in the late eighteenth century by German naturalist and theologian Christian Konrad Sprengel.
Now, let us think about the following point: At the time of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), there was no developed field of botany and biology. The reproductive process of plants and the role of the male and female elements in this field were not known.
How then did a person who could not read and write manage to know that there was male and female plants at a time when people were unaware of botany or biology? There is only one answer for this question: It is as Allah, who creates pairs from plants, informed him about it.
