Surah At-Tin 95:1-8 - Quran Translation Commentary

1. According to Ibn `Abbas the allusion by teen is to the mosque of Nuh (asws) on mount Judiyy (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir). But many others have understood it as the fig fruit.

The Fig

Majid writes: “Fig is the most approved of fruits and the most nutritious and the least flatulent: drawing, dissolvent, having the property of opening obstructions of the liver and spleen, and laxative: ... it is a pleasant fruit, having nothing redundant, and a nice food, quick of digestion, and a very useful medicine, for it has a laxative property, dissolves phlegm, purifies the kidneys, removes sand of the bladder, opens obstructions of the liver and spleen, and fattens the body.”

Fig is one of the strangest of fruits. In fact, it is not a fruit. It is a flower. But not one, rather, many. Hence its description as a ‘flower cup.’ But the description is not complete. For, the flowers ripen within the fruit, albeit very small ones with the seed at the tip and a pulpy base. Appropriately, some scientist call it a garden turned inside out. It represents a complete inflorescence.

Botanically classified as Ficus Carica, the fig is a pear shaped fruit with a thick outer skin: green, yellow, rose, black or brown in color. The inner walls of its chamber are lined with hundreds of flowers. Depending on species, the flowers are either only female, only male, or both male and female. It is a delicious fruit of high sugar content that can be eaten fresh, dried or canned. But it consists largely of fructose which is a less harmful class of sugars. It is also rich in calcium, iron, and copper. Bustani has cited several healing qualities of the fig including piles. Its mild laxative quality is well recognized. In fact, like dates, it is a poor man’s diet in the Middle-east. Substandard figs are used as feed for cattle. They are eaten as whole, the inner chamber rarely opened and examined closely. If that was done, for which one might need a lense, one will discover, if he knew how to recognize, corpses of biological organisms.

The fig tree is a broad plant whose height can reach up to 10 meters and the diameter of its trunk up to 1 meter. It can also have multiple trunks climbing around the trunk of another tree: squeezing and eventually killing it and then living on its own. It is primarily a Mediterranean plant grown in the Syrian region, Iraq, Turkey, Algeria, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy. Its plant was taken to the United States in 1880. But it failed to produce any fruit. Everything was tried. Frustrated, the growers began to pull them out and clear the ground until they learnt from the Turkish experience the incredible manner of its pollination. A tiny insect, the fig wasp, had to be imported. That was unbelievable to many. According to accounts when a scientist Gustav Eisen announced in California the necessity of importing these wasps, he was “hooted down and some of the mob whistled.” But, ultimately wasps had to be brought in.

There are four main types of figs: (1) wild figs, (2) Smyrna figs, (3) common figs and (4) San Pedro figs. The famous southern-Asian Banyan tree, which is revered by the Hindus and Buddhists, is an example of the wild fig tree. As it grows this tree sends down roots from seeds deposited on its stem and branches, that sink into the soil as new roots. However, its fruit is inedible. The Banyan tree is only one of the many kinds of wild fig tree plants. Every region has its own species of wild fig trees, especially those regions where edible fig is cultivated. The wild figs (also called Caprifig) are important for pollination. All kinds of Smyrna figs, which are edible, depend on wild fig trees for their pollination. Tiny wasps (a kind of fly), measuring some 2 mm, roughly the height of letter “i” as here, are born inside the wild fig fruit. The fruit has a tiny hole at the outer end through which the grown up wasps leave covered with the pollen. These pollen-covered wasps then enter into other fruits of the same tree as well as the Smyrna figs and pollinate them. Hence, growers of Smyrna figs also grow wild fig plants nearby. Without them the Smyrna tree will not produce any fruit.

In contrast, the common fig fruit, (also known as “Adriatic fig”), does not require any pollination to produce the fruit. It is self pollinated. Hence it has no seeds. But the San Pedro variety produces fruits of both kinds: those that do not need pollination, and those that need to be pollinated. This tree produces two crops a year. The first crop, which comes in early summer, does not need pollination for the development of its fruit. But the second crop which comes in fall, requires to be pollinated by the wasps. Hence the need of the wild fig plant for the San Pedro variety also. Wasps then are a key to the development of the fig fruits. There are approximately a thousand species of the fig tree, and equal number of fig wasp species. (A species is one which cannot interbreed with another). Each species of wasp serves only a specific species of the fig tree. They are interdependent. Without the fig trees, there would be no wasps. And without the wasps, there would be no fig. We might, therefore, look more closely into the fig-wasp relationship.

In the spring, the wild fig tree produces figs which contain numbers of both male and female flowers. However, the two flower sexes do not develop together (although within the walls of the same fruit). Female flowers develop first, and are ready to receive the pollen. At that stage the female wasp enters the flower cup (the fig) through a tiny hole at one end. It lays its eggs inside the short-styled female flowers. (Male flowers, also found within the same fruit, have long styles). Flowers into which the wasp lays eggs, develop into tiny galls each of which has a developing wasp larva feeding inside. Sometimes, the wasp also injects a fluid which induces the formation of galls within which the larvae develop.

By early summer, the fig reaches its maturity. The wasp larvae too are about to hatch. However, it is the male larvae that hatch first. They munch their way out of the gall. Then they chew holes through the adjacent galls in which the female larvae is still buried (and still under development) and mates with it. When the female emerges from the gall after some time, it finds itself surrounded by male flowers (as mentioned earlier, strategically placed at the entrance of the fruit). So that, when it emerges and is ready to fly out (it has wings, against the male which has no wings), it is fully covered with the pollen. Once out, the female searches for fig fruits in which it could lay its eggs. The wasp enters into the female flower of the edible fruit and tries to lay eggs into its styles. But they are too long for that. Her egg laying apparatus - called ovipositor, a tube at the end of her abdomen - has to match with the length of the style. It is the inedible fruit which has the right kind of female flowers with the right length of style. So, unable to lay the eggs, the wasp moves on. But, in the meantime, she would have pollinated the female flowers. The wasp leaves the fruit to look for another fruit with the right flowers (with short styles). Attempting on another edible fruit, with female flowers, she pollinates it also. It goes on in succession until she has pollinated a large number of fruits. Finally, as the time passes, the same fig tree now begins to produce another type of small, inedible fruits in its upper branches. This fruit has both male and female flowers in its inner chamber. It has short styles. The wasp enters into the fruit and is able to deposit its eggs. Young male and female larvae hibernate in them and, with the male hatching out first, the cycle begins again.

The above described one of the many sequences, in one of the many species of the fig - although details will vary from plant to plant and wasp to wasp. Here is another cycle and a little bit more in detail. Here too, we can begin with the female wasp laying her eggs in the tiny flowers. As days and nights pass by, one season departing, another arriving, the wasp eggs (laid down earlier) mature in the inner fig chamber. As the larvae grow, they eat the flowers. In time, the larvae become a pupae, and they hatch into grubs. But not all at a time. It happens in two phases. In the first phase, it is the male wasps that hatch out. The male wasp is distinctly different from their mother wasp, or sister wasps still in the pupae stage. In fact, it is so different in its body structure that it is hard to call it a wasp. It has no wings. It has, obviously, no egg-laying apparatus. It has a huge mandible: an apparatus for fighting duels, apart from other functions. It is tough looking and quite fearsome. They immediately start to feed on the flowers. At last well fed, the male individual wasp begins to search for the female pupae. That brings it into competition with other males wasps. As usual, fights ensue. They cut, maim and kill each other mercilessly. Many die out and the triumphant ones set about locating the female pupae. Having found one, still in its (flower) gall, the male chews open two holes (one at the top and the other at the side) and copulates with the bride couched within the capsule. A little later the female wasp too wakes up, yawns and chewing its way out, emerges as a mature wasp. Thus, every female wasp already carries as it emerges from its capsule, a bag of eggs that it is going to lay in future. It need not copulate anymore as an adult.

The female wasp is different from the male in many aspects. It has no mandibles to fight, and body structure is entirely different. Also, it has wings. Once grown to full size, the female wasps have no job in the fig fruit in which they are born. Already pregnant with eggs, they must leave the place and look for another fruit to lay their eggs. Some species of wasps escape through the hole at the tip of the fig. But some figs do not have these holes. So, how can the female get out of the fig fruit? Well, it is the male wasp’s turn to labor. But the job of making a gateway for the female wasp is beyond the scope of a single male wasp. The answer is in co-operation. The bitter hostilities of the past are forgotten and many male wasps join hands and drill a hole in the fig wall. Once the hole is big enough, the female wasps fly out. Incidentally, the fresh air entering through the holes bored by the males causes a drop in carbon dioxide within the fig; this, in turn, stimulates pollen formation by the flowers. As for the male wasps, they have completed their life-cycle, and are allowed a peaceful death. They never leave their dark world and never see their offspring for whose appearance into the world, they fought, killed, and got killed

As for the winged female wasp, there is another thing that it does before leaving. It has brushes on its arms, and pockets on its breasts. It uses the brushes to fill its pockets with the pollen. It is a deliberate act, like that of the female farm workers in the flower fields, collecting flowers for the perfume manufacturer. Having filled its breast pockets, the wasp departs to fly into the world of sound and vision. But it is not particularly fond of the open world. It has twin objectives for the rest of her life. It is to dislodge her load of eggs and, secondly, pollinate the female fig flowers. (In her case it is a deliberate act when compared to other pollinating insects who crawl about on the flowers incidentally pollinating them). Having found a fig, the wasp enters through the tiny hole at its far end. The hole is too narrow for her. In fact, it is too narrow even for ordinary ants to enter. As she struggles to crawl in through the narrow tunnel, she loses her wings. But that doesn’t matter since she will not need the wings any more as she will not come out again. (The fig growers check for pollination of the fruits by checking the holes. If they find wings stuck there, they know that the wasp has entered). Once having wiggled itself through the hole, the wasp immediately begins to work in the dark, visiting the flowers, to either drop a bit of her cargo of pollen, once again with the help of her brush, doing it very deliberately, like a farm worker taking out seeds from the coat pockets and burying them in the earth. She also drops an egg wherever she feels the spot is right - into the styles of the flowers.

Having gone around the fruit, pollinated the flowers, and having dislodged her reserve of eggs, she too has done all that was required of her. She is now ready to lie down and die in peace. She does not live long enough to see her offspring come alive either. Nor does she leave the fruit again. And, none of the offspring ever see either of their parents, nor do the parents ever see their offspring.

As a result of the co-operation between the fig tree and the wasps, the figs emerge. If the wasp didn’t enter into a fruit at all, the fruit would not ripen and, consequently, would be dropped off by the tree in a shriveled form. Alternatively, if the wasp happens to lay too many eggs, then too the fruit is dropped off by the tree. If the tree did not drop such a fruit off, the emerging grubs from the larvae would eat off all the flowers, none fructifying into fruits and seeds and the farmer would be sorry for a bad crop. But the wasp doesn’t do that. It lays just enough eggs and pollinates the rest of the flowers for them to develop into fruits. Obviously, if she laid too many eggs, and the fruit was dropped off by the tree, her own offspring would die with it. It is another thing that the wasp would never know, whether or not the tree dropped that fruit off in which she had laid more eggs than necessary. The wasp dies earlier than the fruit dropping by the tree. So, it is a mystery why the wasp does not lay eggs on every flower inside the fig although some do.

There is a reason why we have allotted so much space to the fig is that the fruit debunks the story of evolution. Instead of admitting defeat, the evolutionists rather advance far-fetched fictitious ideas such as, "the fig-wasp relationship is an example of co-evolution, or mutualism in evolution." In the words of a scientist: “The fig and fig wasp story is an extreme example of the co-evolution of plants and their animal pollinators. Without the wasp, the fig would not be pollinated; without the fig, the wasp would have no egg-laying site or food for its larvae. And the timing of the fruit maturation on the part of the fig, and of larval development and egg-laying on the part of the wasp, is incredibly precise and precisely coordinated, as it must be for this mutually beneficial system to work. Each species has become adapted through natural selection to better exploit the other, influencing the course of each other’s evolutionary trajectory through their interactions.” (Pollination, the art and science of floral sexuality, Nancy C. Prat and Alan M. Peters, Zoogoer, July/August 1995).

Statements of this sort completely ignore the difficult questions that arise. The big question is why? Why should the fig and fig wasp have had to evolve together to get locked to each other in this fashion? There are millions of species of plants. They all have open flowers. The fig is unique. It is a flower turned inside out. Why? For what evolutionary advantage, when none of the millions of flowers are having any problem getting pollinated as open flowers? They are happily replicating their DNA without the aid of the wasps or any other agent. Again, why did the fig tree choose only one pollinator, and that too, of it only one species. By various stratagems, it locks out not only a variety of other insects, but of the wasps too, allowing a single species alone to enter in? What is the evolutionary advantage in limiting itself in that manner? Does the survival chances of the fig increase or decrease by this exclusiveness?

However, the issues are more complicated than a few questions raised above. We need to explain the various synchronized actions and characteristics of the two, fig and wasp. For example, (1) the intricate hole at the far end (ostiola), which permits only specialized pollinators to enter and excludes predators such as ants. In other words, the fig locks out all except the entry of a specific wasp. (Does the fig fruit have a complete list of predators, small and big, everyone of those hundreds of millions of species, including their inability to bore holes)? (2) The perfect adaptation of the female flowers for development of the larvae in the galls. (3) Asynchronous development of the two flower sexes, male and female, at different times within the same fruit. The female flower ripens at the time the female wasp enters for pollination. But the male flowers ripen with the emergence of the new adult wasps. (4) Ripening of the fig is delayed until the wasp has emerged. (5) Mandible among the males. (6) Telescoping abdomen for the males for copulation with the pre-emergent females. (7) Emergence of more of females than males. These are some of difficult issues that need an outside Hand, an external Power to co-ordinate.

Now we can move another step forward on the road of confusion and talk about the wasp parasites. Fig wasps justify their existence by providing pollination service to the fig. In turn, the fig provides the wasp with the specially designed galls to lay their eggs in. Arrived at a happy agreement between themselves, the wasp lays eggs only on about half of the flowers. The other half then can develop into fruits and seeds. But the drama takes another turn. No sooner has the wasp laid its eggs, and found a niche to die off within the fruit, than a parasite appears on top of the fruit. This is also a wasp, but not the kind that can or will enter the fruit. It has got its own ways of exploiting both the fig as well as the wasp, without offering any service to either of them. This one is well equipped. In fact, it is another wonder of nature. It has a long, tough ovipositor, cum drilling machine, cum sensor, cum egg-laying apparatus. With this machine, the tiny creature is capable of drilling a hole (on her scale equivalent of a 100 foot wall: Dawkins) through the fig from the outside. Having drilled a hole in the fig, the operation itself conducted almost in the manner of drilling rigs, the tip of the long ovipositor locates deep inside the fig the flower galls in which the fig-wasp has laid its eggs, and deposits one of its own eggs on top of it. Her offspring will now feed on the developing wasp-egg. It does not pollinate any flower. The evolutionists forget to talk about the role of this amazing wasp in the so-called co-evolution; nor do they talk about how the parasite wasp knows of the eggs inside the fig.

As if the plot is not thick enough, there are parasites over parasites. For instance, no sooner the parasite wasp with its long drilling machine closes the site office and departs, another parasitic wasp promptly moves in. It has a much shorter ovipositor. It uses the hole dug by the long-ovipositor wasp, and deposits its own egg. There are no less than 32 species of parasites attached to certain species of figs: none of them pollinating, but all of them profiting from the fig. The system allows for multiple species to develop side by side in a single fig. Most of the interactions between the fig, the pollinators, and non-pollinating exploiter biological organisms (not to speak of microorganisms) are not understood by the biologists who work mostly on the simple wasp-fig relationship. All the facts that are stated and the speculations that are forwarded, are devoted to a very small portion of the phenomena which brings the fig to our tables. And, even within that, individual scientists specialize on one or two aspects, devoting the best of their research years to understand the role played by a ‘part’ of ‘the incomplete whole.’ But that ‘part’ itself is extremely complicated and cannot be understood in whole. In the words of a biologist, “The symbiotic relationship of the fig and the wasp, each dependent on the other (Ramirez 1969) similar to the yucca month and the yucca plant (Riley 1878) is a strange and difficult to explain phenomenon in the plant-insect relationship.”

The truth is, the ‘whole’ story, that covers everything about the figs, all their varieties, their pollinating wasps, other minute creatures, parasites and microorganisms, offers a branch of knowledge beyond the comprehension of a single mind. As another scientist has put it (in another context), “Understanding the basic processes of pollination reveals the intricate purpose that underlies the beauty of flower and opens our eye to the amazing natural event going on all around us” (Au.).

2. According to Ibn `Abbas, Ka`b al-Ahbar, Qatadah, Ibn Zayd and others, the allusion by the zaytun of the text is to (the mosque at: Ibn `Abbas) Bayt al-Maqdis. But Mujahid and `Ikrimah have said that it is “olive” itself that is meant (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

Majid writes about the olive: “It is the first tree, of those now known, mentioned in the Bible. Its wealth of nourishment made it a natural candidate for the position of King of trees” (P. XVIII, n. 26).

3. Tur is that mount in Sinai where Allah (swt) spoke to Musa (asws).

4. According to some scholars, Allah swore by the three most holy sites: Bayt al-Maqdis (known as the city of fig and olives), mount Tur, and Makkah following the statement in the Bible: God came from mount Sinai, then appeared in Bayt al-Maqdis and rose up from mount Faran, i.e. Makkah (Ibn Kathir).

A Prediction of the Tawrah

The Biblical text Ibn Kathir has alluded to is as follows:

“This is a blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. He said,

The Lord came from Sinai,

and dawned from Se’u upon us;

The shone forth from Mount Paran,

The came from the ten thousands of holy ones,

with flaming fire at his right hand."

(Deuteronomy, ch. 33, verses 1-2)

The above verses of the Tawrah are a clear reference to the fall of Makkah. Faran is the name of a series of mountains surrounding Makkah. (The “F” of Arabic is changed to “P” in other languages. For example, Palestine for Filasteen). It was in these mountain ranges that the Prophet (saws) encamped with 10,000 of his followers on the eve of the invasion. He had ordered his followers to kindle flames all over the camp in order to impress Abu Sufyan, the commander-in-chief of the Makkans, of his numbers to discourage him from resistance (Au.).

Fig, Olive, Tur and the Haram

Nonetheless, it might be noticed that if we are to follow Ibn `Abbas’s interpretation, it is the mosques at Judiyy, Mount Tur, Bayt al-Maqdis, and Makkah, and by these the five ‘Ulu al-`Azm Prophets, (Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, `Isa and Muhammad - on them be peace), who have been alluded to in the first three verses (Au.).

However, most commentators, such as Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir and Shawkani believe that there is no reason to sacrifice the apparent meaning of teen and zaytun for any other interpretation. But, if the apparent meaning is accepted, then, as Thanwi has pointed out, Allah (swt) has sworn by two plants of great material benefit to mankind, (fig and olive), and by two places of great spiritual benefit (mount Tur and the Haram at Makkah) - Au.

Asad adds: “The 'fig' and 'olive' symbolize, in this context, the lands in which these trees predominate; i.e., the countries bordering on the eastern part of the Mediterranean, especially Palestine and Syria. As it was in these lands that most of the Abrahamic prophets mentioned in the Qur’an lived and preached, these two species of tree may be taken as metonyms for the religious teachings voiced by the long line of those God-inspired men, culminating in the person of the last Judaic prophet, Jesus. 'Mount Sinai', on the other hand, stresses specifically the apostleship of Moses, inasmuch as the religious laws valid before, and up to, the advent of Muhammad - and in its essentials binding on Jesus as well - was revealed to Moses on a mountain of the Sinai Desert. Finally, 'this land secure' signifies undoubtedly Mecca, where Muhammad, the Last Prophet, was born and received his divine call. Thus, verses 1-3 draw our attention to the fundamental ethical unity underlying the teachings - the genuine teachings - of all the three historic phases of monotheistic religion, metonymically personified by Moses, Jesus and Muhammad."

5. To such perfection that any improvement by way of modification of the limbs or organs, internal or external is out of question. Or, can an artist improve upon the human face? (Au.).

6. The opinion of Ibn `Abbas, `Ikrimah, Qatadah, and that of my own preference is that by the “lowest of the low” is meant “extreme old age”, although, according to Hasan (and also Mujahid, Abu `Aliyyah, Ibn Zayd and others: Ibn Kathir), the allusion is to “Hellfire” (Ibn Jarir).

The Lowest of the Low

The meaning preferred by most of the modern commentators has been worded by Sayyid in the following manner: “The emphasis here is on man’s spiritual qualities since these drag man down to the most ignoble state when he deviates from the upright nature, and turns away from belief in Allah which is perfectly harmonious with this nature. ... Moreover, the superiority of man’s creation is most clearly apparent in the spiritual qualities. (Even the angels were made to prostrate themselves before him: Shabbir). He is made in a way which enables him to attain a sublime standard, superior to that of the highest-ranking angels. This is illustrated by the event of the Prophet’s ascension to Heaven. Jibril stopped at a certain stage and Muhammad, the human being, was taken to higher elevations.

“At the same time, man is given the dubious ability to sink down to the levels unattained by any other creature. ... In this latter case, animals become superior to him and more upright since they do not violate their nature. They praise the Lord and fulfill their function on earth as they are guided to do. But man, who has been given the fairest form and abilities, denies his Lord and sinks right down to the bottom.”

7. Ibn `Abbas’s interpretation is that the verse applies to those “younger days” when a man sends forward good deeds before old age overtakes him (Ibn Jarir).

8. According to In `Abbas, `Ikrimah and Qatadah the words “for such,” apply to those who spend their younger and better days in good works. When they reach their extreme old age and lose control over their body and senses, they shall be deemed to be continuing with the deeds of the past and, consequently, rewarded for them, even if not attempted. Further, they shall not be held responsible for whatever evil, sins or wrongdoing that they might commit because of their senility (Ibn Jarir, Qurtubi).

9. Another possible meaning is: “And who can (O Muhammad) cry lies to you (after all these signs)?” (Ibn Jarir, Zamakhshari, Razi, Qurtubi and others).

10. It is reported of the Prophet (saws) that when he recited this verse he would respond with:

“Indeed so, and I am one of those who bear witness” (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

In fact, in a hadith of Tirmidhi the Prophet has ordered his followers to also say these words when they hear or recite these verses (Qurtubi).