S18
Fire from the green tree
"[It is] He who made for you from the green tree, fire" (36:80): the verse points to fire coming out of moist, living wood, as a sign that life can come out of dry bones.
ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلشَّجَرِ ٱلْأَخْضَرِ نَارًا فَإِذَآ أَنتُم مِّنْهُ تُوقِدُونَ٨٠
Transliteration: alladhī jaʿala lakum mina l-shajari l-akhḍari nāran fa-idhā antum min'hu tūqidūna
[It is] He who made for you from the green tree, fire, and then from it you ignite.
أَفَرَءَيْتُمُ ٱلنَّارَ ٱلَّتِى تُورُونَ٧١ ءَأَنتُمْ أَنشَأْتُمْ شَجَرَتَهَآ أَمْ نَحْنُ ٱلْمُنشِـُٔونَ٧٢
Transliteration: afara-aytumu l-nāra allatī tūrūna · a-antum anshatum shajaratahā am naḥnu l-munshiūna
And have you seen the fire that you ignite? Is it you who produced its tree, or are We the producer?
Translation: Saheeh International
Meccan, near the end of Sura Yā Sīn.
"And have you seen the fire that you ignite? Is it you who produced its tree, or are We the producer?" (56:71–72), Meccan, the last of four questions in Sura al-Wāqiʿa: about the sperm-drop we emit (56:58), the crops (56:63), the water (56:68) and the fire (56:71) — the first about our own creation, the rest about what sustains us.
Key words
Al-shajar al-akhḍar: "the green tree". Tūqidūn: "you ignite".
See also: 36:78–79
And have you seen the fire that you ignite?
56:71
Classical tafsir
Ibn Kathir on 36:78–80. The verses answer a denier of resurrection: Mujahid, ʿIkrima and others name Ubayy ibn Khalaf, who came "with a dry bone in his hand"; Ibn ʿAbbas names al-ʿAs ibn Waʾil, who "crumbled it in his hand" (as read for run 11). On 36:80 Ibn Kathir explains God as "the One Who initiated the creation of this tree from water, when it has become green and beautiful", and quotes Qatada: "the One Who brought forth this fire from this tree is able to resurrect him."
Ibn Kathir on 56:71–73. "The Arabs had two kinds of trees called Al-Markh and Al-'Afar ( that they used to ignite a fire )." The fire is also "a reminder" — "of the Hellfire, according to Mujahid and Qatadah" — and a provision for "Al-Muqwin"; he reports that Ibn ʿAbbas, Mujahid, Qatada, al-Dahhak and al-Nadr bin ʿArabi took it to mean "travelers", and that Ibn Jarir (al-Tabari) chose that meaning.
Al-Jalālayn on 56:71. "Have you considered the fire that you kindle? the fire which you produce out of the oil of green trees?"
Where they differ. Ibn Kathir explains the "green tree" through the two Arabian fire-sticks, markh and ʿafār; al-Jalālayn through "the oil of green trees". Both see the same argument: fire from what is green and wet is a sign that life can come from what is dry and dead.
How it works
Each point is tied to "from the green tree, fire".
- Stored sunlight. Established Plants use sunlight to build sugars and cellulose from carbon dioxide and water (photosynthesis). Burning wood reverses this: the stored carbon combines with oxygen and releases the energy as heat and light. (Standard biology and chemistry; no named source was read.)
- Friction fire. Established Rubbing two pieces of wood together heats the fibres until they smoulder (The link to Ibn Kathir's markh and ʿafār is in Classical tafsir and The reflection.)
Points of awe
A flame from wood releases energy a living tree captured from sunlight (standard science).
The Arabs of the Prophet's (pbuh) time made fire by rubbing green branches of two particular trees (Ibn Kathir).
Reflection
A man brought a dry bone and crumbled it in his hand: "Who will give life to bones while they are disintegrated?" (36:78). The Quran answers with two arguments. The first: "He will give them life who produced them the first time." The second is in the next verse: "[It is] He who made for you from the green tree, fire".
Green wood is the opposite of fire. It is wet, cool and alive. Yet the Arabs knew that rubbing two green branches of markh and ʿafār could bring out a flame. If fire can come out of something wet and green, why should life not come out of something dry and dead? Qatada drew the conclusion plainly: the One who brought fire from the tree "is able to resurrect him".
Sura al-Wāqiʿa asks the same in a quieter way: "And have you seen the fire that you ignite? Is it you who produced its tree, or are We the producer?" (56:71–72). Every cooking fire, every lamp, began with a tree we did not grow.
Today we can add that the energy in that flame is sunlight, captured by leaves and stored in wood. The verse does not teach photosynthesis. But the reflection deepens the sign: opposites come out of each other in this world all the time, by God's command.
Questions readers ask next
What are markh and ʿafār?
Two Arabian trees whose green branches were rubbed together to make fire (Ibn Kathir).
Why does a verse about fire follow a question about bones?
Because both are about opposites: fire from wet wood, life from dry bones (Qatada, via Ibn Kathir).
What does "a reminder" mean in 56:73?
A reminder of Hellfire, according to Mujahid and Qatada (Ibn Kathir).
Is this verse about photosynthesis?
No. It is about fire from green wood; photosynthesis is a modern reflection that deepens it.
Sources
- Saheeh International — 36:78–80, 56:71–72.
- Ibn Kathir, Tafsir (abridged English), on 36:77–80, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-78-sora-36.html (as read for run 11), and on 56:71–73, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-71-sora-56.html; Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (English) on 56:71, same page.
- Maʿārif al-Qurʾān on 36:80, citing al-Qurṭubī (quran.com)
- Al-Qurṭubī and Ibn Kathīr on 36:80 and 56:71–73
- A standard biology textbook chapter on photosynthesis and respiration (e.g., Campbell Biology)