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.
'' Our Lord ! grant us good in this world and good in the hereafter and save us from the torment of the Fire '' [Ameen]
-
{in Arab} :->
Rabbanaa aatinaa fid-dunyaa hasanatan wafil aakhirati hasanatan waqinaa 'athaaban-naar/-
(Surah Al-Baqarah ,verse 201)
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