Yāsīn 36:80 commentary

36/80

ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلشَّجَرِ ٱلْأَخْضَرِ نَارًا فَإِذَآ أَنتُم مِّنْهُ تُوقِدُونَ

Alladhī jaʿala lakum mina'sh-shajari'l-akhḍari nāran fa-idhā antum minhu tūqidūn

"He who made fire for you out of the green tree — and all at once there you are, kindling from it."

Where the sentence attaches

A point of word order, and it determines the work of the verse: the sentence begins with alladhī and attaches to the alladhī anshaʾahā of the preceding verse.

This, then, is not a separate proof — it is a second attribute of the one who gives life.

Verse	Relative clause
79	alladhī anshaʾahā* awwala marratin* — who brought them into being the first time
80	alladhī jaʿala* lakum mina'sh-shajari'l-akhḍari nāran* — who made fire out of the green tree

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the attachment of the alladhī: the proof from fire is given here not as an independent proof but as an attribute of the one who gives life. And this differs from the use in al-Wāqiʿa.

A comparison with al-Wāqiʿa 56/71-72

In al-Wāqiʿa at 56/71-74 the tree of the fire was treated. The findings there were these: the question comes in the form a-antum anshaʾtum shajaratahā, that is, the distance of the question's stepping back is being measured — man strikes the fire, the branch gives the fire, the tree gives the branch; and in the desert fire was struck by rubbing two dry branches together. A table was also given there: of the four trees in the sūra, the fourth is in this world and belongs to everyone. I do not repeat it here; I rely on that treatment.

Yāsīn recounts the same fact but parts from it at three points, and all three can be verified:

	al-Wāqiʿa 56/71-72	Yāsīn 36/80
The form of the sentence	A question: a-antum anshaʾtum shajaratahā	A relative clause: alladhī jaʿala lakum
The attribute of the tree	None — shajaratahā	*Al-Akhḍar* — green
The proof it attaches to	Independent — the third in a series of proofs from provision	Attached to the proof of giving life — the continuation of alladhī anshaʾahā
Where it leads	Tadhkiratan wa matāʿan li'l-muqwīn — a reminder and a benefit	Directly to the resurrection — to verse 81

And the most important difference is the second row: the adding of the attribute.

ٱلشَّجَرِ ٱلْأَخْضَر — the attribute carries the proof

خ-ض-ر — the root: greenness, freshness. Khaḍir — fresh growth; khuḍra — greenstuff; akhḍar — green.

And green here is not a piece of information about colour but about a state: it announces that the tree is moist and alive.

This is the structure of the proof, and it must be recorded:

What comes out	Its source
Fire — dry, burning	A green tree — moist, alive

The opposite, that is, comes out of its opposite.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the attribute has been added: what al-Wāqiʿa recounted was the source of the fire; what Yāsīn recounts is that the fire's source is its opposite. And this is the exact counterpart of the objection: the objection said "the living does not come out of what has rotted"; the answer says "the dry comes out of the moist." In both cases what comes out does not resemble what it comes out of — and the one addressed does one of these every day.

And the background is concrete: in the desert fire was struck by rubbing two branches together, and there were trees known to be suitable for the work. The lexicographers name these trees. The verse, that is, looks at a technique the one addressed has in his own hands — as was recorded in the discussion of al-Wāqiʿa.

A caveat of method — per the method (Method)

This verse is one of the places often used for claims of scientific miracle: correlations are made with the storing of energy in plants, the chemistry of combustion and the like.

This commentary does not take that road. The grounds:

1. The proof of the verse is not a piece of chemical knowledge. The proof is that the coming of the opposite out of its opposite is visible to the eye — and this is something the one addressed knows. 2. The verse does not recount a mechanism; it recounts a fact and its agent. 3. Such a correlation does not strengthen the proof of the verse; because the force of the proof comes from its resting on something in the hand of the one addressed.

Modern correlations are one point of view and are kept within that caveat.

فَإِذَآ أَنتُم مِّنْهُ تُوقِدُونَ

Idhā fujāʾiyya — and this is the last of the six occurrences in the sūra.

And a point of word order must be recorded: five of the six occurrences were in the third person (fa-idhā hum, fa-idhā huwa). This last is in the second person: fa-idhā antum.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the change of pronoun: what has been recounted throughout the sūra as "they" becomes "you" in the last proof. And this runs in the same direction as the turjaʿūn of the sūra's last verse: the closing section takes the one addressed inside the sentence.

و-ق-د — the root: a fire's catching and burning. Waqūd — fuel; īqād (Form IV) — to kindle. The verb is ascribed to man: tūqidūn — "you kindle."

Worth recording, and the same line was kept in al-Wāqiʿa: the verse grants man his share — it is you who strike the fire. Then it steps back one pace: but it is not you who put the fire in the tree.