As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 63 of 182

As-Saffat 37:63

إِنَّا جَعَلْنَـٰهَا فِتْنَةً لِّلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“Indeed, We have made it a torment for the wrongdoers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

They laughed that fire burns trees; Allah replies that He made this tree a fire-test, the kind that shows what a heart is made of.

A reflection

Measuring Allah by a kitchen fire

A man has cooked on gas all his life. His daughter installs an induction hob in his new flat. He puts his hand on the glass: cold. He tells her it cannot possibly boil water. Ten minutes later the pan is bubbling, and the glass is still cool to the touch. He stares at it, slightly offended.

When the tree of Zaqqum was first mentioned, the deniers of Makkah had an objection ready. The commentaries record it in their words. Your companion tells you there is a tree in the Fire, and fire eats trees. They thought this settled the matter. They had seen fire. They knew what it did to wood. Therefore it could not be.

The ayah answers with two words: innā jaʿalnāhā. We made it. The tree is not something that happens to grow where it should not. It is placed there by the One who made the fire.

One commentary says reason finds nothing impossible here. Allah can create in the Fire a tree of its own kind that the fire does not consume. He creates chains, shackles and keepers there that it does not consume either. Another adds that fire burns only by His permission. The Quran shows it plainly elsewhere: a fire made cool and safe for Ibrahim (21:69).

The deniers' mistake was not stupidity. It was arrogance of a very human kind: making one's own experience the boundary of what the Creator can do. We do it constantly. I have never seen it, so it cannot be. The ayah shrinks that pride to its true size. Our kitchen fires are not the measure of His power.

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.