Al-'Adiyat · Makki · ayah 2 of 11

Al-'Adiyat 100:2

فَٱلْمُورِيَـٰتِ قَدْحًا

“And the producers of sparks [when] striking[1968]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The chargers strike the rock so hard that fire leaps from their hooves: effort that brings out what lay hidden in the stone.

A reflection

Struck, and the fire came

On a woodland weekend, a group leader hands out flint and steel to a circle of ten-year-olds. 'Strike down, hard and fast, close to the cotton wool.' Most of them scrape and get nothing. One boy gets a single orange spark, then another. By the end of the afternoon, every child has made fire at least once. The spark was always in the stone. It needed the right strike to come out.

The ayah uses two words from exactly that world. Qadḥ is striking: stone on stone, or a fire-stick against its partner, to draw out a spark. Awrā, from which al-mūriyāt comes, is making the fire actually appear. The lexicons record a pair of sayings. Qadaḥa fa-awrā: he struck, and the fire came. Qadaḥa fa-aṣlada: he struck, and nothing came. Both images are established.

The root of awrā holds a quiet detail. The Arabs made fire with a pair of fire-sticks. The flame seemed to come from somewhere inside the wood, hidden until the stick was struck. From that hiddenness the same root gives warāʾ, what lies out of sight.

The root of qadḥ also has a wider sense: bringing something out. It was used for ladling the last broth from the bottom of a pot, and for drawing out the truth of a matter.

So the picture is this. The chargers gallop over stony ground at night, and their hooves hit the rocks so hard that sparks fly. The sources add that the hooves themselves strike like steel, which makes the image stronger than iron shoes would.

The Arabs used this very language for people too. Of a capable, generous man they said: when he strikes, fire comes; when he gives, he quenches thirst. A person, like a fire-stick, could be wārin, quick to give flame, or ṣald, all noise and no fire.

Which are you, when life strikes you? The ayah is about horses. But the question it leaves in the Arabic ear is about us.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.