Bending
Towards the
Lights
Jenna Evans outlines lessons we can learn from the Earth’s oldest living organisms: trees.
Allah (swt) commands us, in the Qur’an, to recognise the divine beauty and perfection in nature, from the mountains and rivers, to the gardens and date-palm trees:
And it is He who spread the earth and placed therein firmly set mountains and rivers; and from all of the fruits He made therein two mates; He causes the night to cover the day. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought. And within the land are neighbouring plots and gardens of grapevines and crops and palm trees, [growing] several from a root or otherwise, watered with one water; but We make some of them exceed others in [quality of] fruit. Indeed in that are signs for a people who reason. (Ar-Ra’d: 3-4)
Like people, trees have unique characteristics. I would like to think that they, too, have stories of grief and triumph and personalities shaped by their experiences and environment. Imagine the drooping canopies of the Weeping Willows, the sweet solitude of the Lone Cypress, the Giant Sequoias stretching into the sky, and the “upside down” African Baobabs. These trees come in different shapes, sizes, colours and textures, and they bring to mind different adjectives and emotions. Yet they each have a beauty that is all their own.
