al-Naml 27:7-8

idh qāla Mūsā li-ahlihī innī ānastu nārā, sa-ātīkum minhā bi-khabarin aw ātīkum bi-shihābin qabasin laʿallakum taṣṭalūn · fa-lammā jāʾahā nūdiya an būrika man fi'n-nāri wa man ḥawlahā wa subḥāna'llāhi rabbi'l-ʿālamīn

"When Moses said to his family: 'I have made out a fire. I shall bring you news from it, or bring you a burning brand, so that you may warm yourselves.' When he came to it, a voice called out: 'Blessed is the one in the fire and the one around it. And glory be to God, the Lord of all the worlds.'"

This scene was treated in al-Qaṣaṣ at 28/29-35, and the root أ-ن-س was worked out there: to catch sight of, to make out; to grow warm; from the same root come ins (human being) and uns (intimacy). The lexicographers record the sense "to sense a light from a distance". I do not repeat the analysis of the root; I rely on that treatment.

What belongs here is the difference between the two tellings, and all of it can be verified from the text:

Three differences are worth recording.

First — the name of the ember. In al-Qaṣaṣ, jadhwa; in al-Naml, shihābun qabas.

• جَذْوَة (jadhwa) — a piece of wood with its end alight; the log itself.
• شِهَاب (shihāb) — a shaft of light that shines and blazes. This word was treated in al-Jinn, and it was recorded there that the root is used both for a bright trail in the sky and for a flame from a fire.
• قَبَس (qabas) — root ق-ب-س: a piece taken from a fire. Iqtibās — taking and taking from someone; the word's present-day sense of "quotation" comes from here.

In al-Qaṣaṣ, then, it is the wood itself that is named; in al-Naml, the piece taken from a fire. I record this as an observation: the word al-Naml chooses contains the act of taking.

Second — al-Naml gives no place name. Al-Qaṣaṣ names Mount Ṭūr, the right bank of the valley and the tree; al-Naml says only "a fire". This is a difference in the two tellings' choice of detail, and it is a countable datum.

Third — the content of the call is altogether different. In al-Qaṣaṣ the one who calls identifies himself; in al-Naml the first thing said is a declaration of blessing: būrika man fi'n-nāri wa man ḥawlahā. In al-Naml the declaration of identity comes one verse later, at verse 9.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order of the two texts: al-Naml opens the scene with the hallowing of the place, al-Qaṣaṣ with the introduction of the speaker. The two sūras cut into the same moment from two different points.

The root ب-ر-ك was worked out in al-Furqān at 25/1 and in al-Mulk at 67/1: a camel's kneeling down, settling in a place and staying fixed there; and from this, blessing — a good that abides and increases. I do not repeat it here.

The indefiniteness of the sentence must be recorded, and it is a datum of the text: the particle man ("who") is used, and who is meant is not said. More than one reading of this expression is transmitted in the classical commentaries:

I do not impose a preference in this disagreement. And I do draw one limit: the verse cannot be read in a way that would mean God is inside the fire — and indeed subḥāna'llāh (He is free of every deficiency) follows immediately upon the sentence. That this clause of transcendence is placed at exactly this point is a datum of the word order, and it blocks the mistaken reading above. I record this as an observation about the word order.

The observation recorded in al-Qaṣaṣ holds here too, and rather than repeat it I add something to it: the call comes not at a place that was sought out, but on a road, at a point turned aside to for an everyday need.

What is peculiar to al-Naml is this addition, and I give it as my own reading: the two things asked for in al-Naml — news and warmth — are the sūra's own subjects. News will be carried throughout the sūra (the hoopoe brings nabaʾin yaqīn at 27/22; the letter is carried at 27/28), and the sūra will turn on the question "who brings news". The first word Moses speaks as he turns towards the fire is bi-khabarin. I record this as an overlap, not as a claim about intent.