23. The craft of agriculture.106

 

 

The fruit of this craft is the obtainment of foodstuffs and grains. People must undertake to stir the earth, sow, cultivate the plants, see to it that they are watered and that they grow until they reach their full growth, then, harvest the ears, and get the grain out of the husks. They also must understand all the related activities, and procure all the things required in this connection.

Agriculture is the oldest of all crafts, in as much as it provides the food that is the main factor in perfecting human life, since man can exist without anything else but not with­out food. Therefore, this craft has existed especially in the desert, since, as we have stated before, it is prior to and older than sedentary life.107 Thus, it became a Bedouin craft which is not practiced or known by sedentary people, because all their conditions are secondary to those of desert life and their crafts, thus, secondary and subsequent to (Bedouin) crafts.

God is "the Creator, the Knowing One." 108