An-Nahl 16:10
The verse traces a **vertical flow**: sky → water → earth → plants → fruits.
هُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنزَلَ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءً ۖ لَّكُم مِّنْهُ شَرَابٌ وَمِنْهُ شَجَرٌ فِيهِ تُسِيمُونَ
It is He Who sends down for you from the sky water. From it is drink, and with it grows vegetation for grazing
An-Nahl 16:10 · Translation: talal-itani
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First, water for two uses: "lakum minhu sharāb" (drinking water) + "wa minhu shajarun fīhi tusīmūn" (the plants/trees on which you pasture). Then a fourfold list of crops: grain, olive, date palm, grape — the four staple crops of Mediterranean agriculture. It expands with "min kulli al-thamarāt" (of every kind of fruit). The sentence binds the entire ecosystem to a single descent (water).
Observation
The hydrological cycle encompasses the evaporation of water from the oceans, its condensation in the atmosphere, and its return to the Earth's surface as precipitation. Plants form an essential link in this cycle: they require water for photosynthesis; at the same time they return water vapour to the atmosphere through transpiration. Wheat, olive, date palm, and grape are species requiring different water and heat regimes; for all of them the common starting source is precipitation.
Exegesis
Al-Qurṭubī (al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān) holds that the four crops (grain, olive, date palm, grape) are the staple products of Arab-Mediterranean agriculture. Al-Rāzī (Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb) emphasizes that the call "li-qawmin yatafakkarūn" notes that the vertical flow is recognized not by **seeing** but by **reflecting**.
Sources
Tafsīr: al-Qurṭubī · al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; al-Rāzī · Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb.