Al-An'am 99: Allah is the One Who sends down rain from the sky. We have grown every type of vegetation with it. And We have made from the vegetation green, out of which grain grows; clusters that hang from the date sprout, gardens of grapes, gardens of olives and pomegranates of which some look alike, and others don’t. Look at the fruit of each of them when they give fruit and when they ripen. Verily, there are lessons for a nation that believes.

Surah Al-An'am, verse 99. Allah Almighty mentions this verse very often. Constantly, in many verses, Allah Almighty repeats this verse. What does He say? He is the one who sends down water from the sky. He says this often. Because He gives life to all living things with water. All living things find life from water.

What is the property of water?

The property of water: it is made of two hydrogen and one oxygen; it is a substance formed by the union of two elements. So what? Water. When we examine water, the oxygen in it, its elements or its nuclei, they cannot reduce to a single one. If they were to reduce it to one, a situation would arise that would burn the universe. A situation would come about that would burn the universe. For this reason they cannot reduce it to one. And this proves that the essence of oxygen is one, and the One is Allah. Allah creating water with a little of His essence, and with that water giving life to the living beings He created, to those He created from His essence.

A part of His attribute al-Hayy, the Living. A little of the attribute al-Hayy. Yes. That is why He repeats this water so often, but people take it for an ordinary water. Water. And with that water, with that water, they try to settle people in this way. That is, they gloss over it.

Yes, He is the one who sends down water from the sky, and with it We brought forth every kind of plant, He says, every kind of plant We brought forth with it. If we turn this to the inner meaning: since Allah Almighty created from His light the light of the Prophet, and from his light the universe, since that oxygen too cannot be reduced to one, since it is a part of His essence, since it is a part of (?), since it is a part of His being, since water too is from this oxygen, since water comes about by joining with hydrogen, His saying 'with it We brought forth all living things, every kind of plant' means His giving them life from His essence.

It shows here that Allah brought forth everything from His essence, derived it from His essence. And since He derived it from His essence, with His knowledge, since He derived it from His essence, with the verse 'the heavens and the earth and what is between them know the remembrance of their Lord', all created things, from the atom to the globe, remember Allah in this way. And from that plant, grains piled one on another, We bring forth grains piled one on another, like grapes. Greenery, clusters hanging from the spathe of the date palm, vine- yards, olive and pomegranate gardens, some resembling one another and some not, We brought forth.

Look at the fruit of each when it bears fruit and when it ripens; surely in all of these there are lessons for a people who believe. Look at the fruit of each, He says; look, each has its own taste. Yes.

There are many meanings here. Very many. The capacity of the mind.

Let me touch on it a little; I will not open it up. Because if we open it up, it is impossible for people to grasp it with this capacity, with this knowledge.

What did we say about Allah Almighty? He is free of deficient attributes. The divine essence changes attributes swiftly. Changes attributes swiftly.

However you see Me, He says, I am a (?) of that one and a (?) of that one and a (?) of that one. So, with the (?) forms of the people who will come from our father Adam until the Day of Judgment, although Allah Almighty is (?), He has infinite forms even beyond that. Infinite.

And since He produced the plants from His essence, their changing with those infinite forms, with (?) substances being added to these plants, the plants' tastes in their nature, their colours, their shapes too, always with traits unlike one another, though fed from the same soil, return to their nature.

These parts do not concern us. These parts are deep. Never mind. We move on. Now to its surface meaning. He is the one who sends down water from the sky. With this verse, the clouds, the clouds condensing and coming down as rain, and His giving life with this rain to the plants He created, is what it describes.

There are three things without which there is no life. Three things. One is air. Again, there is oxygen in the air. The lungs taking in oxygen. And what is oxygen? It runs this engine of the body. Oxygen. The second is the sun. Without the sun too there is no life. The third is water. If one of these three things were missing, life would be (?). Yes. The first of these is water, the second oxygen, and the third the sun. For this reason Allah mentions them in verses. He declares that water too is life, that living things need it, and that to the living beings He created He gives life as their Lord.

As their Lord.

From His essence. He gives life to everything He created from His essence. All of it, from the atom to the globe, whatever there is, (?) from His essence. That is why Allah Almighty in His verse (?). He does not separate any of them from His essence. Had He said 'I', nothing other than His essence would find life; it would not prosper, it would perish.

Yes. that in water there is life, and that living things need it, and that to the living beings He created, as their Lord, He gives life, He declares. So, with it We brought forth every kind of plant. With this verse Allah, the Glorious and Most Holy, of the creatures He created and of people, the plants and fruits they can eat with pleasure and enjoy, the provisions He bestows on people, are expressed, and He gives people examples from what He created, examples. Examples. Yes.

So, with the verse 'with it We brought forth every kind of plant'. Allah, the Glorious and Most Holy, of the creatures He created and of people, the plants and fruits they can eat with pleasure and enjoy, the provisions He gives to people, expressing His bestowing them, giving people examples from His creation: what is it?

From that oxygen, the oxygen in water, to all created things, to those plants, giving life. Grains piled one on another, for example like an ear of wheat, or the date palm's clusters and the dates on them, or the grapes on the grape clusters: how He created them resembling one another, in separate states and with separate flavours, must be told.

Apart from these, giving examples of those that do not resemble each other, olive and pomegranate gardens, He gives examples from plants and trees. Although the olive tree bears its fruit one or two on a branch, on the other hand, giving as an example that inside a single pomegranate of the pomegranate tree there are thousands of seeds, the One who creates them, and creates them in this way as people will enjoy and offers them to people, is Allah. Only Allah has power over these. That is, all the plants that people will taste with pleasure, that their body needs as food, He created and set before people.

People eat so many of these beautiful plants that Allah Almighty created, and send them down with great benefit into their stomach. This is my right, they say; if they do not see the One who gives it, is that not ingratitude? Yes. That is why a Muslim says alhamdulillah after eating. That alhamdulillah is giving thanks to one's Lord. It means: all praise and thanks be to Allah. After eating he says alhamdulillah. Yes. If you know nothing else, say alhamdulillah after eating.

Allah Almighty, in Surah Ar-Rahman, expresses it so beautifully. He expresses what He has given.

What does Allah Almighty say?

He has let loose the two seas, He says, to meet. Between them is a barrier; they do not pass into each other and mix. Then which of the favours of your Lord, He says, can you deny? Because He is the one who gives. From both come pearls and coral. Now which of the favours of your Lord can you deny? His are the ships rising on the seas like lofty mountains. So which of the favours of your Lord can you deny? Every living thing on the earth will perish; only the face of your Lord, the Owner of Majesty and Honour, face will remain, He says. Yes, only the face of your Lord, the Owner of Majesty and Honour, will remain; so which favours of your Lord can you deny, He says.

Everyone in the heavens and on the earth asks of Him; He is at every moment in a state of creating. Then which favours of your Lord can you deny; it goes on like this. He shows all the parables, the examples. Which favour of Allah can you deny?

But are there not those who deny? Those who associate partners with Allah. Those who say Allah is three.

Those who suppose themselves to be the sons of Allah. Allah protect us; in this way these people eat and drink and (?) my right is lost. They do not see what Allah gives, and finally, in a swamp of disbelief, using up their life, wronging their own self in the hereafter, and what He calls 'what an evil place of return', what He calls 'what an evil bed', hell, is what they attain. Allah protect us. May Allah protect all of us from such a punishment. May Allah Almighty join all of us to the people who know His essence and know their own self as helpless. And to the provision Allah Almighty gives, always giving thanks, when eating, remembering those who have none and saying to Allah Almighty, O my Lord, You are the owner of those who have none too.

Grant them their provision abundantly too; thinking of them, so much that that morsel barely passes their throat; join us too among the people who think of them so, when one says this, one has truly thanked one's Lord. Indeed, I am eating this, while there are those who cannot find it to eat. If He granted you this, this blessing, then glorify the One who granted it. Remember Him. Give Him praise and thanks. There are those who cannot find it. Looking for work, finding no work, hungry and thirsty, (?) home. If you could only think about the state of those children. If there is nothing to eat at home either.

Thinking of these situations, could you eat a meal with relish? Is that possible? Only if you lean your back on your Lord, know that He is the owner of everyone, and pray for them too, maybe amid those tears you can swallow that morsel. Yes. That is why always give thanks to Allah. Give thanks for your state. Always say: there is worse than the worst. There is worse than the worst.