(… أَنبَتَكُم… ) (…has caused you to grow …): It expresses the process of planting. The land produces plants, but it is not the cause of it in itself. Allah (swt) may use the verb form and then use the stem form of the verb intending the name of it. The Arabic word of this phrase indicates that He (swt) brings plants for us out of the land. Planting may be used with the meaning of bringing into existence:

 وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَنشَأَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ 

(And it is He who produced you from one soul) (Al-An’am: 98)

Bringing into existence means to create something without using any other created objects. Allah (swt) says:

} هُوَ أَنشَأَكُم مِّنَ الْأَرْضِ وَاسْتَعْمَرَكُمْ فِيهَا{

(He has produced you from the earth and settled you in it) (Hud: 61)

Allah (swt) brings the human beings into existence through the relation between the husband and the wife. However, if we trace this creation back to its first beginning through Adam (PBUH), we find that Allah (swt) has created him from the same substance of the earth which is one of His creatures. The husband’s semen and the wife’s ovum are composed of the extract of the blood produced from the earth. Whether you refer to the creation of Adam (PBUH) from the earth or the reproduction of the human beings, everything is traced back to the earth. Originating the human beings from the earth which is confirmed by Allah’s saying (a progressive growth.) indicates the unity of the origins of life on the earth and that the creation of the human being is like that of the plant; a seed sowed in the soil and then irrigated, it needs light, heat and the nutrient that passes from the ground to the leaves through the roots and stems. Thus, the human being consists of the original elements of the earth and feeds on them to grow, so he is as a plant.