By A. O.
Such flawless and finely calculated plans are certainly not the work of a bud unaware of everything. They are the work of the wisdom of Allah, Who created all things.
Water Lilies
Little flowers on the earth are mostly considered commonplace by people, notwithstanding their overall perfection. What prevents people from grasping the Creation miracles in these flowers is the familiarity brought about by seeing them everywhere and every day.
Therefore, flowers that grow in a totally different place, under totally different conditions and in totally different sizes will be assessed without the “glasses of familiarity” and thus help us grasp the existence of Allah.
Amazon water lilies that grow in the sticky mud covering the bottom of the Amazon River are interesting enough to remove the ‘glasses of familiarity’ from people, because they continue their lives not in the way people are accustomed to and witness everyday, but with a very different struggle.
These plants start to grow in the mud at the bottom of the Amazon River, and then reach out towards the river surface. Their goal is to reach the sunlight which is vital to their existence. When they finally reach the water’s surface, they stop growing and develop thorny, round buds. The buds develop into gigantic leaves with a reach of 2 meters, in as short a time as a couple of hours. “Knowing” that the more they cover the river surface with abundant leaves, the more will they be able to make use of sunlight, these water lilies make ample use of daylight to perform photosynthesis. They “know” that otherwise, they will not be able to survive at the bottom of the river due to the scarcity of light. It is certainly quite inspiring for a plant to employ such an “intelligent” tactic.
However, sunlight alone does not suffice for the Amazon water lilies. They also need oxygen equally, yet it is obvious that this oxygen does not exist in the muddy ground in which their roots are located. This is why water lilies stretch out stems developing from their roots upwards towards the water surface where their leaves float. Sometimes these stems grow as tall as 11 meters; they are tied to the leaves and function as oxygen-carriers between the leaves and the root.21
How can a bud in its initial stages of life in the depths of a river know that it needs oxygen and sunlight to survive, that it would not be able to live in their absence, and that everything it needs is present on the water surface? A being recently introduced to life is aware neither of the fact that this water has an ending point nor of the existence of the Sun or oxygen.
Therefore, if the whole event is assessed from the standpoint of evolutionists, these plants should long before have been defeated by environmental conditions and become extinct. Nevertheless, water lilies are still present today in all their perfection.
The amazing life struggle of water lilies continues well after they reach light and oxygen on the water surface, where they curl the brims of their huge leaves upward to prevent them from sinking.
They can continue their lives with all these precautions, yet they also know that these are not enough for their reproduction. They need a living being that will carry their pollen to another water lily, and this living being is a beetle (coleopteran) which has been created with a special weakness for white color. They prefer these white water lilies out of all the attractive flowers of the Amazon River. When Amazon water lilies are visited by creatures which will continue their species, they close all their leaves, imprison them, and offer them ample pollen. They let them free after keeping them for one night, and then change their color so that they do not bring the same pollen back to them. The once pure white, glorious water lilies will now go on adorning the Amazon river in pink.
Such flawless and finely calculated plans are certainly not the work of a bud unaware of everything. They are the work of the wisdom of Allah, Who created all things. All the details summarized here show that plants, like all other living beings in the universe, were created by Allah, Who is All-Wise and All-Powerful.
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A. O. is a Turkish writer and author.