The Miracle of the Qur'an, - The Miracle of Fire and Wood, That Cannot Be Obtained Artificially

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Have you thought about the fire that you light? Is it you who make the trees that fuel it grow or are We the Grower?We have made it to be a reminder and a comfort for travelers in the wild. So glorify the name of your Lord, the Magnificent! (Surat al-Waqi 'a, 71-74)
One of the chemical substances mainly responsible for the structure of wood is "lignocellulose." This substance is a compound of the materials known as "lignin" and "cellulose" that give wood its hardness. In terms of chemical structure, wood is made up of 50% cellulose, 25% hemicelluloses and 25% lignin. 22An analysis of these substances' chemical formulae reveals three vital elements: hydrogen, oxygen and carbon.
Hydrogen, oxygen and carbon are the building blocks of millions of substances in nature. But as a miracle from Allah, these three also combine to give rise to the substance "lignocellulose", which is found in plants. Although scientists know that hydrogen, oxygen and carbon are the ingredients of lignocellulose, some of the greatest minds in the world have been completely unable to reproduce this special material in plants. Although these elements can easily be obtained, scientists have been unable to create a single piece of wood by artificial means, despite having countless examples before them to study. Yet all the trees we see around us have been ceaselessly producing this compound for millions of years by combining oxygen, carbon, water and sunlight.
One of the compounds in lignocellulose is water, expressed by the formula H2O. Despite containing a large amount of water in its make-up, wood is still somehow one of the most flammable materials in nature. The above verse is very wise in noting that wood cannot be made by human beings. By means of these compounds and the water it contains, wood is one of the most important fuels of fire.
Trees are an important sphere of scientific research. Scientists are still struggling to grasp all the details in their Creation. The complex structures of the cells that constitute trees have still not been fully unraveled, despite advances in technology and intensive research. The Forestry Commission of Great Britain, one of the world's leading forestry research institutions, says the following under the heading "Lack of Information on the Chemistry and Structure of Wood Fibres":
Despite the knowledge resulting from earlier and ongoing research, there still exists a lack of information on the chemistry and structure of wood fibres. Large variations can be found within a single tree, from the pith to the bark and from the base to the top of a tree. Often the chemistry and structure of a wood cell are extremely heterogeneous and difficult to investigate with conventional techniques. 23
An examination of the chemical structure of wood shows it consists of 50% cellulose, 25% hemicellulose and 25% lignin.
A paper in the scientific journalPlant Physiologytitled "Our Understanding of How Wood Develops is not Complete" describes the limited knowledge of the subject that scientists possess:
Considering the important role that wood is foreseen to play in the near future, it is surprising to see that our understanding of how wood develops is far from complete. With a few exceptions, very little is known about the cellular, molecular, and developmental processes that underlie wood formation. Xylogenesis represents an example of cell differentiation in an exceptionally complex form. This process is controlled by a wide variety of factors both exogenous (photoperiod and temperature) and endogenous (phytohormones) and by interaction between them. It is driven by the coordinated expression of numerous structural genes (some of known function) involved in cell origination, differentiation, programmed cell death, and heartwood (HW) formation and by virtually unknown regulatory genes orchestrating this ordered developmental sequence. The presence of gene families and the extreme plasticity of the metabolism involved (as exemplified by the unusual behavior of plants with transformed cell walls; for review, see Fagard et al., 2000) add a further complexity to our understanding of the process of wood formation .24
The extraordinary Creation in wood is emphasized thus in another scientific journal,Annals of Botany:
Wood formation is a highly complicated process involving an unbelievable variety of metabolic steps in the roots, stem and crown of shrubs and trees. At the centre of these processes is cambial activity which results in the release of young woody cells that undergo maturation until autolysis of the protoplast, indicating the final developmental stage. Later on, in various tree species, woody cells become further modified by an additional process called heartwood formation. The properties of wood that make it an appropriate raw material for many purposes are largely determined by the specific architecture of the cell walls. Difficulties in investigating these many developmental stages appear when routine techniques, which work well for soft plant tissues, are applied. Therefore, in most cases, these techniques need modification or the use of completely revised protocols to yield good results for woody tissues. 25
These details in the Creation of wood remind us, as set out in Surat al-Waqi 'a, that wood cannot be made by human beings. Just a few of the inimitable features of wood, which cannot be produced artificially, are as follows:
Wood, a Resistant Material
The hard and resistant nature of wood is the result of the cellulose fibers it contains. Cellulose is exceptionally hard and is insoluble in water. It is this property of cellulose that makes the use of wood in construction so advantageous. Cellulose, described as a "contractible and incomparable substance," has been used for centuries in the construction of buildings, bridges and many other structures.
The Mosquito, one of the aircraft most tolerant of damage, was made of laminated plywood.
Wood consists of parallel columns made up of convex cells laid end to end. These are surrounded by cellulose fibers in spiral form. In addition, these cells are contained in "lignin," a substance made from a complex, polymer structure resin. These spirally-enclosed layers make up 80% of the thickness of the cell wall and bears most of the load there is to bear. When a wood cell collapses internally, it absorbs the shock of a blow by detatching itself from the surrounding cells. Even when such collapses causes a crack along the length of the fiber, the wood remains remarkably unharmed. That is why wood is strong enough to bear specific loads even if it is broken.In addition, wood is ...
A material based on the structure of wood can be up to fifty times more resistant than other synthetic materials currently in use. 27Today, these unique properties of wood are used against high speed impacts and destructive fragments such as bombs and bullets. Yet scientists have not been able, despite their staunchest efforts, to come even close to replicating a piece of wood with all its many attributes. Every detail in the Creation of wood, - the thickness of the internal layers, their level of compression, the number of vessels, their layout and the materials inside it, have been specially created to result in that resistance.
The Hydraulic System That Raises Water Many Meters against the Force of Gravity
The dead part of wood, known as the "xylem," contains hollow channels. These, also known as "wood vessels," consist of inanimate cells that gradually lose their nuclei and cytoplasm, and which are piled one on top of the other. Long, thin wood vessels form when the membranes between the cells dissolve and disappear.
Roots spreading out beneath the soil carry the water and minerals the plant needs upward through these tissues. The water is then transmitted as far as the leaves. The way the roots absorb the water in the ground is reminiscent of the “test bore technique”. The roots themselves have no engines to initiate the water absorption process; neither do they have any technical equipment with which to pump water and minerals for distances of up to several meters. But the roots absorb the water present in the depths of the soil by spreading over a very wide area.
As seen in the picture to the left, wood consists of tube or strawshaped cells. By combining one on top of the other, these cells, which make up the roots and trunks of plants, serve as channels that carry water and minerals right through the plant. This tissue, known as "xylem," also constitutes a powerful structure that enables the plant to remain upright. To the right, we can see a slice of dry wood in crosssection. When dried out, the tubelike channels become hollow, as shown in the illustration. 28
This lifting process that the plant performs so flawlessly is an exceedingly complex one. Yet this system has still not yet been fully understood, even in these days of high technology and space travel. The presence of a "hydraulic system” in plants was determined some two centuries ago, but we still do not know how this action in defiance of the force of gravity takes place. The superior technology squeezed into such a confined space is just one of the examples demonstrating the incomparable knowledge of our Lord, the Creator of the system. Like everything in the universe, Almighty Allah created the transportation system in trees.
As seen in the picture above, wood consists of tubular or straw-shaped cells. By combining one on top of the other, these cells, which make up the roots and trunks of plants, serve as channels that carry water and minerals throughout the plant. This tissue, known as "xylem," also constitutes a powerful structure that enables the plant to remain upright. To the right, we can see a slice of dry wood in cross-section. When dried out, the tube-like channels become hollow, as shown in the illustration.
Roots Capable of Selecting Minerals from the Soil
Plants draw all the mineral nutrients they need from the soil; this includes potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and sulfur. Since the substances are not found separately in the soil, they absorb them as ions (positively or negatively charged atoms). Of all the many inorganic ions in dissolved state in the soil, plants absorb only the fourteen they need.The iron concentrati ...
Because of this state of affairs that operates contrary to the pressure system, the plant uses a high level of energy in the pumping process. In addition, in the plant roots' taking up ions from the soil, there needs to be an identification system that attracts only the wanted ions and repels the unwanted ones. This shows that the ion pumps in the root cells are no ordinary pumps, but possess the ability to select between ions. Bearing in mind that the cell in the plant roots are made up of atoms devoid of any intelligence or consciousness, we must all surely acknowledge what an extraordinary process ion selection truly is.

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