The Qur’anic sentence /fa minhu ya’kulun/ (so they eat of it) ...

The Qur’anic sentence /fa minhu ya’kulun/ (so they eat of it) , from one side, points to this fact that man feed from a part of vegetal grains, and some others of them are not edible for man, but they have some other benefits, such as: food for animals, producing the colouring matters, medicine, and other things which are utilized in man’s life.

And, on the other side, by preceding the word /minhu/ to /ya’kulun/, which is usually used for restriction, expresses this point that the most (and also the best) source of man’s food is vegetal stuffs, so much so that as if they form all foods of man. Surah Ya-Sin - Verses 34-35 وَجَعَلْنَا فِيهَا جَنَّاتٍ مِن نَّخِيلٍ وَأَعْنَابٍ وَفَجَّرْنَا فِيهَا مِنَ الْعُيُونِ لِيَأْكُلُوا مِن ثَمَرِهِ وَمَا عَمِلَتْهُ أَيْدِيهِمْ أَفَلاَ يَشْكُرُونَ 34.

“And We made therein gardens of date-palms and grape vines, and We caused springs to flow forth in it,” 35. “That they may eat of its fruit, and of what their hands have produced; will they not then be grateful?” In man’s nutrition, cereals and grains have the first function and then there are fruits. The man’s duty for bounties is cognition and thanks giving. Allah gives life to the dead land and makes plants and fruits available that man eats them and thanks.

This holy verse refers to the life of dead lands. It says: “And We made therein gardens of date-palms and grape vines, and We caused springs to flow forth in it,” In the previous verse the words were about grains, but here the strengthening and nutritive fruits, two outstanding samples of them are date and grapes each of which is counted a complete food.

As we have formerly said in detail, too, the studies of scholars show that these two fruits, in particular, have kinds of necessary vitamins and different vital materials for man’s body. Moreover, these two useful fruits can be kept and used in different forms during the year for eating.

The Arabic term /’a‘nab/ is the plural form of /‘inab/ and the term /naxil/, as Raqib says in Mufradat, is the plural form of /naxl/ but with this difference that the term /‘inab/ is usually called to ‘grapes’ itself and it is rarely used for a vine, while the word /naxl/ is a name for the tree, the fruit of which is fresh date and is called /tamr/ (fresh but dry date).

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