Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 71 of 96

Al-Waqi'ah 56:71

أَفَرَءَيْتُمُ ٱلنَّارَ ٱلَّتِى تُورُونَ

“And have you seen the fire that you ignite?”

Saheeh International

Essence

The verb is not kindling but striking, and what it strikes fire out of is two green branches.

A reflection

Something put inside, and locked

A safety match will not light on a wall, or a boot, or another match. It lights on the strip on the box, and nowhere else. The fire is in the head of the match and the key is on the box. The two were made for each other by somebody who is not in the room.

That is the picture the ayah is working with, and the commentaries make it concrete.

The verb here does not mean to kindle with fuel. It means to strike out, to bring out of the stick. The commentaries gloss it as striking from the fire-sticks and bringing it out of its origin. They then name the two trees the Arabs used. Take a green branch from each, rub one against the other, and sparks scatter from between them.

So the subject is not a bonfire. It is fire asleep in wet wood.

There is nothing in human history we are prouder of than fire, and this ayah dismantles the pride in half a line. We did not put it there. We found the trick. Somebody put a power inside a living thing, and fitted a key to it, and left the key lying about for us to find.

One commentary says exactly that. He is the One who made it deposited in its place.

Measure your own competence against that and the ego has nowhere to stand. Every technology we have is a found key. We get extremely good at turning them, and we have never once made a lock.

And there is a detail that makes it worse, or better. The thing is hidden in the one material that looks least capable of it. Wet green wood. The fire had to be put somewhere nobody would guess.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.