Plants unquestionably play a major role in making the universe a
habitable place. They clean the air for us, keep the temperature of the planet at a
constant level, and balance the proportions of gases in the atmosphere. The oxygen in the
air we breathe is produced by plants. An important part of our food is also provided by
plants. The nutritional value of plants comes from the special design in their cells to
which they also owe their other features.
The plant cell, unlike human and animal cells, can make direct use of
solar energy. It converts the solar energy into chemical energy and stores it in nutrients
in very special ways. This process is called "photosynthesis". In fact, this
process is carried out not by the cell but by chloroplasts, organelles that give plants
their green colour. These tiny green organelles only observable by microscope are the only
laboratories on earth that are capable of storing solar energy in organic matter.
The amount of matter produced by plants on the earth is
around 200 billion tons a year. This production is vital to all living things on the
earth. The production made by plants is realised through a very
complicated chemical process. Thousands of "chlorophyll" pigments found in the
chloroplast react to light in an incredibly short time, something like one thousandth of a
second. This is why many activities taking place in the chlorophyll have still not been
observed.
Converting solar energy into electrical or chemical energy is a very
recent technological breakthrough. In order to do this, high-tech instruments are used. A
plant cell so small as to be invisible to the naked human eye has been performing this
task for millions of years.
This perfect system displays Creation once more for all to see. The very
complex system of photosynthesis is a consciously-designed mechanism created by Allah. A
matchless factory is squeezed in a minuscule unit area in the leaves. This flawless design
is only one of the signs revealing that all living things are created by Allah, the
Sustainer of all worlds.
