Sacred Seed by Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW)

Author:Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Golden Sufi Center
Published: 2014-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

SEEDS AND THE MIRACLE OF LIFE

Aliaa Rafea, PhD

In Islam, gratefulness is the main character of believers around which all other ethics revolve. The first chapter in Qur’an starts with praising Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, the Most Merciful and Compassionate. Acknowledging the Mercy of the Divine is a way to show gratefulness to everything that exists, including the gift of life that is bestowed upon humans. In Islam, it is through raising the awareness of natural bounty, balance and beauty, that humans came to realize the divine aspect as manifested within everything, “wherever you go, you encounter the presence of the Divine.”

And He it is Who produces gardens (of vine), trellised and un-trellised, and palms and seed-produce of which the fruits are of various sorts, and olives and pomegranates, like and unlike; eat of its fruit when it bears fruit, and pay the due of it on the day of its reaping, and do not act extravagantly; surely He does not love the extravagant.

(Holy Qur’an 6:141)

Humans are asked to know about the universe and use their knowledge to keep the balance. They are taught that seeds are the source of life in all creatures. “A Sign for them is the earth that is dead, We do give it a life, We brought about seeds that they can eat” (HQ 36:33).

Qur’an also draws the attention to watch the relationship between different phenomena: “is He Who sends the winds like heralds of glad tidings, going before His mercy: when they have carried the heavy-laden clouds, We drive them to a land that is dead, make rain to descend thereon, and produce every kind of harvest therewith” (HQ 7:57).

Qur’an advises humans to appreciate the miracle of creation. Regardless of how much we are able to know about genes, there will remain aspects about life and death that will remain unknown to us. It is awesome to think of the majesty of how “seeds” go into a magnificent process and complete their journey to maintain the continuity of their own kind. It is equally mysterious to watch the process of aging and dying. It is even more miraculous to become aware of the capabilities that humans enjoy, both to what extent they can improve the natural condition, and how they can destroy life on Earth by their lust, greed, and selfishness. “The likeness of what they spend in the life of this world is as the likeness of wind in which is intense cold (that) smites the seed produce of a people who have done injustice to their souls and destroys it; and Allah is not unjust to them, but they are unjust to themselves” (HQ 3:117).

From this perspective, interfering with the genetic makeup of seeds, animals or humans could have adverse consequences, if not done with care. There must be a backup for all seeds as they originated in the natural world. If we understand that our lives sprang from “seeds” (sperm and eggs united), and cannot continue without seeds, then we will understand that we have to be careful about the seed from which everything was created.

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