Reflection always yields good, healthy results, sometimes astonishing. If we reflect on the tracts of land and observe them carefully, we can find all-comprehensive divine wisdom and design in the diversity of the structure of the earth. Though countless tracts adjoin one another, they are different from one another in their shapes, colours of soil, component parts, characteristics, potentialities, productive capacity and minerals. Apparently, they present a contrast between different tracts as much as, for example, between the well-established mountains and the flowing rivers and streams, but as we think deeper, we find that this all speaks volumes about the purpose with which God created the earth.
The Qur’ān (13:4) says: “And there are on earth adjoining tracts of land; and vineyards, and fields of grains and date palms, growing in clusters or non-clustered. (All) are irrigated by the same water; yet some of them are favoured above others with regard to the food (they provide). In all this there are signs for people who use their reason.”
Our life has become so machinelike that we often come across such wonders of nature but pass by them not looking carefully at what we see. We scarcely care to reflect thereon. But the people who see through these Signs of God find that ‘adjoining tracts of land’ suggest that some of these tracts are fertile while some others aren’t; some are rocky while some others are barren; some of them are cultivated while some others stand abandoned; some are well-irrigated while some others are arid; yet they are all next to each other. ‘Vineyards, and fields of grains and date palms’ present a graphic picture of a rich variety of colours, plants and fruits. They represent the various types of plants like the creeping grape trees, common grain plants and date trees. Some date trees have one stem while others have two or more shootings from a single stem. All these are ‘irrigated by the same water’ and have the same soil, but the fruits they give taste differently.
If we ponder over the benefits that this diversity of regions has given to us, we shall have to acknowledge that this is the result of the well-thought-out and well-planned design of the All-Wise Creator; for this diversity has helped the growth of human civilization. The divine wisdom demands the same kind of diversity in the natures, temperaments and inclinations of human beings, and, therefore, in their conducts and treatments. So, one need not worry about the existence of this diversity in the various aspects of life.