Mecca – A Plantless Valley

The following verse informs us that Mecca since the time of it’s founding by Abraham has been a plantless valley.

14:37 “Our Lord, I have settled part of my family in this plantless valley, at Your Sacred House. Our Lord, they are to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat), so let throngs of people converge upon them, and provide for them all kinds of fruits, that they may be appreciative.

رَبَّنَا إِنِّي أَسْكَنْتُ مِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِي بِوَادٍ غَيْرِ ذِي زَرْعٍ عِنْدَ بَيْتِكَ الْمُحَرَّمِ رَبَّنَا لِيُقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ فَاجْعَلْ أَفْئِدَةً مِنَ النَّاسِ تَهْوِي إِلَيْهِمْ وَارْزُقْهُمْ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَشْكُرُونَ

Some people claim that the expression غَيْرِ ذِي زَرْعٍ just means that Mecca was without cultivation, but not that it was plantless or non-cultivatable. But does this claim have any standing?

If we look at the word by word breakdown we see the following:

What we see is that the word cultivation is not even in the verse. Instead the word by word analysis shows us that the expression is “not possessing crops/plants”. The word that is used for plants is زَرْعٍ this word comes from the root ز ر ع and means crops and plants, but a deeper look gives more insight into this word.