al-Wāqiʿa 56:71-74

A-fa-raʾaytumu'n-nāra'llatī tūrūn · A-antum anshaʾtum shajaratahā am naḥnu'l-munshiʾūn · Naḥnu jaʿalnāhā tadhkiratan wa matāʿan li'l-muqwīn · Fa-sabbiḥ bi'smi rabbika'l-ʿaẓīm

"Have you seen the fire you strike? Did you bring its tree into being, or are We the bringers? We made it a reminder and a provision for those who camp in the waste. So glorify the name of your Lord, the Mighty."

Warā al-zandu — the fire-stick gave fire. The root describes the striking of fire by rubbing and impact.

The root was analysed in al-ʿĀdiyāt — al-ʿĀdiyāt 100/2, fa'l-mūriyāti qadḥā (those that strike out sparks): the sparks struck when horses' hooves hit stone. I do not repeat it.

What belongs here is this: in both places the verb depends on the movement of man or of an animal. The spark is the result of friction. Here again the verse concedes this share: it is you who strike. Then it steps back one pace.

The question is not "did you create the fire" — shajaratahā: "its tree".

The background is concrete: in the desert fire was struck by rubbing two dry branches together; there were trees known to be suitable for this work, and the lexicographers name them. The verse looks, that is, at a technique in the hearer's daily life.

And the distance the question draws back is worth recording: man strikes the fire; the branch gives the fire, the tree gives the branch, and who makes the tree grow was settled in the preceding proof (63-64: naḥnu'l-zāriʿūn). The proofs are tied to one another.

Anshaʾtum / al-munshiʾūn — root ن-ش-أ. The root's third and fourth occurrences in the sūra (after 35, 61, 62). The same root four times through the sūra: the building of spouses in the Garden, the rebuilding of man, the first building, and the building of the tree. This is a verifiable repetition.

Four times through the sūra a tree is spoken of, and the four are at four separate tasks:

I record as my own reading: three trees were in the hereafter and belonged to the two sides. The fourth tree is in this world and belongs to everyone. This is exactly the work of the section of proofs: to come out of the table of the hereafter and turn to what is in everyone's hand.

Two attributes are given to the fire, and the two are of different kinds:

Tadhkira — a reminder. Root ذ-ك-ر. And this is the same root as the call fa-lawlā tadhakkarūn in the sixty-second verse. The section of proofs opened with a call to remember and closes with the attribute of reminding.

What it reminds of is not stated. In the classical exegeses it is widely said that it reminds of the fire of the hereafter; the table of samūm and ḥamīm in the forty-second verse of the sūra supports this reading. I relay this as an explanation widespread in the tradition; the wording of the verse does not name what is recalled.

Matāʿ — what is made use of, a passing benefit. The second attribute is thus wholly of this world: warming, cooking, giving light.

That the two attributes come side by side is worth recording: the same object is both a sign and a use. The verse does not separate them; it joins them with wāw.

There is disagreement over the sense of the word:

All three are transmitted by the lexicographers; I impose no preference. The common point is plain: the one who benefits most from fire is the one most deprived.

The root's relation to the sense "strength" (quwwa) occurred in al-Dhāriyāt (dhu'l-quwwati'l-matīn); the branch here is separate from that, and the lexicographers record the two separately.

This verse is identical word for word with the ninety-sixth verse of the sūra. As was recorded in the section on the structure of the sūra, this repetition is the clearest sign of the boundaries of the blocks.

Sabbiḥ — root س-ب-ح. The root has been analysed in many places in the series (al-Aʿlā, al-Ḥashr, al-Ṣaff and others): the core sense is to swim in water or in space, moving away, and from there tanzīh, that is, to hold God apart from everything unbefitting Him. I do not repeat it.

There is a detail of word order that belongs here, and the lexicographers discuss it: at al-Aʿlā 87/1 it is said sabbiḥi'sma rabbika'l-aʿlā — a direct object. Here, however, sabbiḥ bi'smi rabbika — the particle bāʾ comes between.

Both readings are transmitted; I impose no preference.

Al-ʿAẓīm — greatness. The root is ع-ظ-م, and the lexicographers record this root's relation to ʿaẓm (bone) — the hardest, load-bearing part of the body. This relation was treated in al-Ḥāqqa.

And the choice of attribute suits the block: all four proofs were built on the great showing itself in small things — a drop, a seed, a mouthful of water, a spark. The block closes with the attribute al-ʿaẓīm.