Taha · Makki · ayah 10 of 135

Taha 20:10

إِذْ رَءَا نَارًا فَقَالَ لِأَهْلِهِ ٱمْكُثُوٓا۟ إِنِّىٓ ءَانَسْتُ نَارًا لَّعَلِّىٓ ءَاتِيكُم مِّنْهَا بِقَبَسٍ أَوْ أَجِدُ عَلَى ٱلنَّارِ هُدًى

“When he saw a fire and said to his family, "Stay here; indeed, I have perceived a fire; perhaps I can bring you a torch or find at the fire some guidance."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Lost, cold and with a family to keep warm, Musa walked towards a fire for a firebrand or directions, and found far more.

A reflection

When your own flint will not spark

A family in a campervan takes a wrong turn on a single-track road in the far north. Sleet is coming down. The satnav has lost its signal. The heater has failed. The children are crying in the back. The father tries the phone again and again: no service. Then, round a bend, he sees one lit window in a farmhouse across the valley.

The commentators fill in Musa's night from the reports they preserve. He had finished his years of service in Madyan and was travelling with his wife towards Egypt. It was winter, and dark. He had lost the road. One report adds that his wife gave birth on the way, on that cold night, and that his flock had scattered. He took out his fire-steel, as he did every evening, and struck it. It gave no spark. He struck it until he was exhausted. Then, on the side of the mountain, he saw a fire.

One commentary says something striking about how he came to be lost. He had parted from the travelling company, by what had already been written in Allah's knowledge. The wrong turn was not outside the plan. It was the plan.

That is worth remembering on our own nights. The tool that always worked, fails. The usual route disappears. We feel abandoned. Yet sometimes the failure of our own means is exactly what turns our eyes to the light on the hillside.

Musa's story, the longest in the Quran, begins not with a triumph but with a man who could not make a fire for his family.

If your own flint has stopped sparking, do not only strike it harder. Lift your eyes. Ask Allah to show you the fire He has already lit for you.

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.