Page 60 - Allah is Known through Reason

Water Lilies

Little flowers on the earth are mostly considered commonplace by
people, notwithstanding their overall perfection. What prevents people
from grasping the creation miracles in these flowers is the familiarity
brought about by seeing them everywhere and every day. Therefore, flow-
ers that grow in a totally different place, under totally different conditions
and in totally different sizes will be assessed without the 'glasses of famil-
iarity' and thus help us grasp the existence of Allah.
Amazon water lilies that grow in the sticky mud covering the bottom
of the Amazon River are interesting enough to remove the 'glasses of famil-
iarity' from people, because they continue their lives not in the way peo-
ple are accustomed to and witness everyday, but with a very different
struggle.
These plants start to grow in the mud at the bottom of the Amazon
River, and then reach out towards the river surface. Their goal is to reach
the sunlight which is vital to their existence. When they finally reach the
water's surface, they stop growing and develop thorny, round buds. The
buds develop into gigantic leaves with a reach of 2 metres in as short a
time as a couple of hours. 'Knowing' that the more they cover the river sur-

Water lilies can only make use of daylight
once they have made their way from the
depths of swamps to the water surface by
extending upwards as high as 2 metres.
However, the roots of these flowers also
need oxygen. In the left picture are the
stems that stretch out from the roots of the
plant to the water surface and carry the
oxygen it obtains to the roots.