وَاللَّهُ أَنبَتَكُم مِنَ الأَرضِ نَباتًا
Allah made you grow from the earth, with a [vegetable] growth.
EXEGESIS
Anbatakum (made you grow) and nabāt (a [vegetable] growth) are terms usually used to refer to what comes forth from the earth and grows from it. In common language, nabāt would usually refer to herbage and grass, and that which animals graze on. This is a meaning even found in the Quran: And send down water pouring from the rain-clouds, that with it We may bring forth grains and plants (nabāt) (78:14-15). But in reality, the term nabāt has wide application in reference to the growth and production of various forms of sustenance for humans and livestock, including the growth and production of crops, grains, olives, date palms, vines, vegetables, and fruits of all kinds (16:11, 80:27-29), oil and seasoning (23:20), delightful and densely-planted gardens, pastures, and trees (27:60, 80:30-31).
Despite this variety of growth, its use here for human growth is uncommon, yet intentional, to force reflection on how man’s growth resembles that of a plant; hence the phrase from the earth in this verse. Otherwise, one might have, for example, imagined the plant-like growth to be a reference to the growth of a human foetus, when it attaches itself in the womb. There is, of course, also the literal meaning of from the earth, in that man was created from dust (3:59) and was brought forth from the earth (40:67).
EXPOSITION
Having mentioned the creation of man in [various] stages (verse 14) and the creation of the heavens and celestial bodies (verses 15-16), Prophet Noah (a) returns to the creation of man once again, before he speaks of the creation of the earth (verses 19-20) in contrast to the heavens. This oscillation is perhaps because all reflection emanates from within man – who is a microcosm of the macrocosm (universe). To understand what is without, man must begin with what is within. In a stanza attributed to Imam Ali (a), he addresses man saying:
A tazʿamu annaka jirmun ṣaghīr
Wa fīka-nṭawā al-ʿālam al-akbar?
do you imagine you are an insignificant life germ
when within you is contained the vast universe?
Hence even when God promises to show His signs until it becomes clear that He is Real (or, that it is the truth), both are mentioned: We shall show them Our signs in the horizons and in their own souls (41:53).
The likening of human growth from the earth like a [vegetable] growth is very powerful. Like most vegetation, for example, humans have a spring (birth and youth), a summer (adulthood), an autumn (old age), and a winter (death) (cf. 40:67).
In a more literal sense, man was created from dust (3:59, 23:12) – for ‘He created your father Adam from it’ – and thereafter man depends, for his sustenance and growth, on what the earth produces, of its grains, and fruit and vegetables (or indirectly, on animals that feed on vegetation). It is also after being nourished by the earth that humans are able to reproduce. Like all vegetation, man also needs water and the light and heat of the sun to survive.
Man also flourishes and continues to grow spiritually, morally, and physically, depending on the nurturing provided to him, with all the essentials for a good growth, just like a plant. And, as Nasr points out, the use of anbata and nabāt here may be alluding to the manner in which all things emerge from a single source: God. Though the things that grow are diverse, they are no different in how they remain attached to the one ontological Source.
Even in their physical demise, humans resemble plants in how they return to the earth, enriching it again for other growth. Having grown gradually, to a full flowering, man produces his own like, and then wilts and returns to the earth. The Quran also likens the resurrection of humans to the revival of a barren land through rains (35:9), and at times the revival of dead hearts to the revival of the earth (57:17). See also the next verse in this surah.
Using the analogy of a plant’s delicate and gentle growth, the word nabāt is also used to describe the flourishing of Lady Mary, the mother of Prophet Jesus (a): And He made her grow up (anbatahā) in a worthy fashion (nabātan ḥasana) (3:37).
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
- Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood: That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:
- Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
- And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.
- So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
[1] Haydar, 5/166.
[2] Jalalayn, p. 574.
[3] Nasr, p. 1424.
[4] Psalm 90:5-6.
[5] Psalm 144:11-12.
[6] Jeremiah 12:2.
[7] Amos 9:15.
[8] 1 Corinthians 15:42-44.