When Blessings Become More Important!

Allah (Giver) light (to) the heavens and the earth. The parable of His light is like an unbroken hole, in which there is a great lamp. The lamp is in the glass (and) the glass is as if the star (which is luminous) is like a pearl, which is lit with oil from a blessed tree, (ie) an olive tree that grows not in the east (something) nor west (its), whose oil (just) almost illuminates, though not touched by fire. Light above light (layered), God guides to His light whom He wills, and Allah makes parables for man, and Allah is All-Knowing all things. (Surah 24:35)

What if there is a Qur'anic verse that informs the blessed tree so that by planting it also becomes its own blessing? What if the blessed tree has also been proven or tested empirically, giving man many benefits on one side of the economy? The tree is an olive tree, ie in the Qur'an An-Nur: 35. And the olive tree is one of a number of plants whose names are mentioned in the Qur'an. In addition, the most important thing for believers will believe in the Qur'an as the word of Allah SWT which must be true, True God over all His words, so that the existence of proof or empirical test will further increase or strengthen the faith and piety to Allah SWT.

Olive Plantation in Spain

Book of Al Filaha, The Phenomenal Agricultural Manuscripts of the Abassiyah Caliphate in Andalusia the Reference of Europe and the World for Centuries

The olive tree is in third place, the most planted trees of humans, after oil palm and coconut. Even for oil palm Indonesia ranks first in the area of ​​plantation and oil production, while for Indonesian coconut ranks second in terms of fruit productivity after the Philippines. Then where can we find the olive tree? Spain is the largest producer of olive oil with an area of ​​2.3 million hectares of plantations with an oil production of 7 million tons/year. Spain began planting olives since the Abassiyah caliphate in Andalusia, and became the center of the medieval agricultural revolution. The tree is also not native to Spain but is from Sham, the Syrian border with Turkey. Andalusian agriculture and plantation were very advanced in the medieval agricultural revolution that became the reference of Europe and even the world at that time. This tree can also be aged up to thousands of years. In addition, from scientific reviews the quality of olive oil is also better than palm oil. The yield of olive oil is also about the same as that of palm oil about 20%.

Palm oil trees are also not native to Indonesia. The palm oil tree is from West Africa and brought by the Dutch colonizers. Initially only 4 seeds and planted in Bogor botanical gardens, even today made a monument in the form of palm oil monument there. Currently the area of  palm oil plantations in Indonesia is about 9 million hectares and the largest in the world. It is common in the world of agriculture and plantations that the place of origin of the tree or plant does not become its largest producer, such as olive and palm oil.

Palm Oil Monument at Bogor Botanical Garden

Can the olive tree replace this palm oil plantation? InshaAllah can. Even olive seedlings can be done by cuttings so it can be done quickly. Unlike palms oil that require large factories to extract the oil, olive trees need only simple means to extract the oil, so it can be done by anyone and start small capacity, such as household scale. It is like coconut, which is widely grown by the people of Indonesia and to get the oil is also easy and simple. Olive planting will also be better like coconut that is managed by the community and planted in all corners of Indonesia.

Olive oil is the same as palm oil and coconut oil that can be used as cooking oil such as frying cooking oil, but also can be used as fuel either directly, or processed into biodiesel. Foods are certainly more prioritized than energy matters, to further examine this issue can be read here. Based on that rule, palm oil may also be directed to fuel, while olive oil and coconut oil are directed to edible oil in human consumption.

But why do we consider this olive important? First of all because of its blessings mentioned in the Qur'an mentioned above. Secondly because the blessing is also scientifically proven. If palm oil is heavily debated for health effects, for example, olive oil is much more widely reported of the benefits, for food, pharmaceuticals and fuel.

While liquid fuels under bioeconomy can be obtained from the above exposure, solid fuels can be obtained from the wood. The woody biomass can be specially cultivated to meet the great need that is by making energy plantations. The Qur'an again gives guidance that is QS 36:33; QS 6:99. The energy plantations are from leguminoceae trees that are not only edible of the seeds, but also fast harvest, very easy to grow, restore ecosystems and even repair and revive dead land, ie, barren and arid land. The woody biomass can then be processed into wood pellets for ease of distribution, use and storage. So by making the energy plantations will be obtained sustainability of supply of woody biomass for the energy source, not by deforesting the forest. How to design wood pellet production from the energy plantations? Please read here for more details. When the production of wood pellets from energy plantations has been done in many places, the small biomass power plants can run with the supply of wood pellets, even the power plant is only the size of a refrigerator.

Leguminoceae leaves are rich in protein, can then be used for sheep or goat feed. Dirt can be collected to be processed into biogas and organic fertilizer. Leguminoceae tree trees will nourish the soil with their nitrogen-binding (N) root capability, so organic fertilizer from sheep rich in phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), will further enrich the soil, enhancing the timber productivity of the energy plantations.

Then what is the blessing? In the Qur'an Surah Al-Qadr (97): 1, the Qur'an is revealed on the blessed night of the Lailatu Qodar night, who worships on that night the reward is the same as a thousand months or 30 days x 1000 months or very much. So that blessing can be interpreted as a lot of good. Then how to get the blessing? Allah says in the Qur'an Surah Al A'raf: 96

"If it be for the people of the lands of faith and piety (takwa), surely We will bestow upon them blessings from heaven and earth, but they deny (Our Signs), We will punish them for their deeds" (Surah 7:96)
 So the answer so that blessings continue to exist and not lost is to believe and piety to Allah SWT.