The alternation of day and night
And the flowering hormone
By
Dr.Nathmy
kaleel abu al Ata
Specialist in philosophy of biology (plants)
in the
University of Een Shames
(Verily!
In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of
night and day, and the ships which sail through the sea with that which
is
of use to mankind, and the water( rain) which Allah sends down from the
sky and makes the earth alive therewith after its death, and the moving (
living) creatures of all kinds that He has scattered therein, and in the
veering of winds and clouds which are held between the sky and the earth,
are indeed (Ayat(proofs) evidences, signs,etc for people of
understanding)
This verse is one of the great
verses in Quraan and Prophet Mohammad ordered us to think deeply about
their meaning.
Here we will concentrate on the
scientific commentary in what Allah said:" And in the alternation of
night
and day" to discover a botanical miracle in the former verse.
The importance of daytime for
the continuous of life on earth:
Daytime, sunlight and its heat
and radiations are the most important factors which Allah subjected so
life can continue on our planet. Thu, when green plants are exposed to
sunlight it transfers the energy of light into a chemical energy formed
as
bonds in the sugar substances this process is called "photosynthesis"
also
water and carbon dioxide are important components in this process.
Photosynthesis is the basic source of almost all energies on earth and
food substances, and if it hadn't been for light this process wouldn’t
exist and all means of life would vanish.
The importance of
night for the continuous of life:
Even thought most of the
important biological processes take place in daytime, millions of them
are
at night. Scholars divided photosynthesis reactions into: light reactions
which happen only in the existence of light, dark reactions which take
place at night and doesn’t need light.
The alternation and
its effect on life:
The differentiation between
daytime and night in length, brightness and darkness, warmth and coldness
are important factors for life. For instance, in flowering plants neither
fruits nor seeds will grow if flowers haven’t, and these flowers don’t
grow on any plant unless it has a chemical biological substance called"
flowering hormone" which leads to the flowering process.
This substance is
formed only by the alternation of light and dark and their intensity and
length; in fact God has created in the kingdom of plant those which need
daily darkness until they flower, thus they are called" long night
plants"
on the contrary, there are others which need light" long daytime plants"
So according to these facts long
night plants cant be moved to an environment where daytime is longer than
night, therefore the plant will not have flowers, fruits nor seeds this
happens if night plants are exposed to artificial light by using big
mirrors to change dark into light in some parts of the earth, as a result
the biological process of the plant will be disturbed.
There are some creatures; other
than plants; that are affected by light and dark like some germs and sea
plants.
It has been found that the ozone
layer protects earth creatures from getting exposed to intense light so
they won't get killed, in fact the increase of light resulted in the
decrease of protein 20% from the rate in some plants, and this indicates
that night is essential for their living.
>From the above we realize that
night is very important for life to continue. When I searched in the
Quran
for verses mentioning day and night, I have found that the word " night"
comes before day in most of them which means that night is important as
daytime, and the difference between them in length of time in important
from a scientific view.
