All the different plants – from trees that are meters in height, to the flowers whose fragrance you delight in and the vegetables and fruit you eat – all of them began as seeds. But what stages have these seeds undergone in their formation?Don’t they see how We drive water to barren land and bring forth crops by it which their livestock and they themselves both eat? So will they not see? (Qur’an, 32:27)
In the development of the seed, the first stage is the transport of the pollen, or male reproductive cells, of flower-bearing plants. Pollen is transported by the wind, insects, animals or some other means to flowers’ reproductive organs.
Right in the center of a flower is one or a cluster of female organs, called the carpel. Each carpel consists of a tip called a stigma, carried on a stalk called a style. At its base is a swollen ovary containing the ovules that will develop into seeds.
Pollen from the male organs is deposited on the stigma, which is coated in a sticky substance, and produces a pollen tube that reaches down the style to the ovary. This sticky surface has the very important function, for if the pollen does not reach the ovary, it cannot fertilize the ovules. The sticky surface of the stigma catches pollen and prevents it from being dispersed and wasted.
Once the grain of pollen, or male reproductive cell, lands on the stigma of a flower from the same species, the pollen produces a tube like a fine root growing down the neck of the style to the ovary. Each of the mature pollen grains contains two sperm cells. The pollen tube transports the sperm to the ovule. One sperm cell fertilizes the egg in the embryo sac of the ovule, resulting in the development of a seed. The other sperm cell unites with two cells in the embryo sac, creating the tissue that surrounds the embryo and provides nourishment for it. Shortly after this process, called fertilization, a seed is produced.
Every seed contains a plant embryo and a store of nutrients. In this embryo is contained all the information relating to the future plant, as we explained at the start. That is to say, the embryo contains a small copy of the plant; and the store of nutrients enables this embryo to grow until the plant can produce its nourishment.
This diagram shows the phases from the flowering of a plant to seed formation. Any intelligent person can see that such a process cannot be the result of coincidence. (Ozet Arpaci, Biyoloji 3 (Biology 3), p. 17.) |
At this point we encounter the miraculous detail that stored in every seed is just the right amount of nutrient to satisfy its needs. The nutrient content of seeds that must remain dormant for a long time before germinating (for example, the coconut) and of seeds that germinate soon after coming into contact with water (such as melon and watermelon) is regulated in different amounts. What’s more, the kind of nutrients stored – principally starch and storage proteins, and sometimes additionally sugar and fat – depends on the variety of the plant. Of these, starch is the most essential, as it is the main source of energy for the embryo. Storage proteins, on the other hand, will provide the amino acids the embryo requires to build other proteins important for its growth.3
Who regulates the amount and kind of nutrients? It cannot be the seed, because this calibration is done before the seed is formed. Then does the parent plant regulate the amount of nutrients, by determining the seed’s stages of development and the length of time before it germinates? To admit such a possibility would mean a series of unreasonable events that are hard to believe, such as the plant having intelligence and consciousness, foresight and knowledge of events taking place beyond its own sphere. No logical, intelligent person can believe such a thing.
The evident truth is that the One Who stores in the seed of every plant exactly the right amount of nutrients it requires, the Creator of all plants and their systems and stages of fertilization is God.
These sketches of different varieties of seeds show how the shapes of the nutrient reserve and the embryo differ in each one. (Grains de Vie, p. 18.) |
The pea, one of the seeds that store sugar. |
The existence of a store of nutrients is important not only for plants, which need it for their seeds to develop, but also for humans and animals. Nutrients in seeds like wheat, corn, rice, barley, rye, oats, millet, buckwheat, legumes (peas, beans, soybeans, black-eyed peas, peanuts) and nuts with shells (such as Brazil nuts, coconuts, walnuts, almonds) are important for both humans and animals.
God uses seeds as a multi-faceted form of provision for humans. |
These seeds have many uses, because of the oil stored within them. |
The amount of fat in oily seeds increases rapidly as the seeds ripen. Some of the most important oils are obtained from flax, tung, cotton, soybean, olive, peanut, castor bean, coconut, sesame and oil palm. As well as being used in food, these oils are used in making paints and varnishes, linoleum, printers ink, soap, artificial leather, and insulating materials.5
As these examples show, seeds have direct or indirect connections with people’s lives and health, including dietary fibers, spices, beverages, edible and industrial oils, vitamins and medicaments.
Seeds like the ones shown above (barley, pistachio, walnut, rice, hazelnut, chestnut) are extremely nutritious. |
Pumpkin seeds are rich in zinc, calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin E. |
Pumpkin seeds have a high concentration of zinc, and for this reason are used in the treatment of various illnesses. In addition, they’re quite rich in iron, calcium and phosphorus, as well as containing vitamin E and essential fatty acids. They also contain a combination of B vitamins, particularly niacin.
Sesame seeds are probably the most widely used seeds in the world. They are rich in oil, over 55%. They are about 20% protein, and contain some of the A and E vitamins, as well as most of the B vitamins apart from B12 and folic acid. As is the case with most seeds, sesame seeds have a high mineral content, with large quantities of calcium, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and iron. They’re a wonderful source of calcium. Whether due to the vitamin E they contain or other factors, sesame seeds also have a mild antioxidant effect.7
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