An-Naml (The Ant)

7. “(Remember) When Moses said unto his family: ‘Verily I perceive a fire; soon will I bring you news of it, or I will bring you a flaming brand, that you warm yourselves.”

8. “So when he came to it, a voice was heard: ‘Blessed is whoever is in the fire and whoever is about it, and Glory be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.”

9. “O’ Moses! Verily, I am Allah, The Mighty, The Wise;”

The word ‘Moses’ has been mentioned in the Qur’an for 136 times and his story has been told in 24 suras. Thus, the explanation concerning the children of Israel is studied in about 900 verses of the Qur’an.

Moses accompanied with his wife who was pregnant, and they were going from Madyan towards Egypt. On one side, the darkness of the night in the cold stormy weather of the desert, and, on the other side, the childbirth of his wife, forced Moses to search. The verses under discussion are about this event.

Here it points to the most sensitive moments of Moses’ life, that is when the first light of revelation enlightened his heart and he was acquainted with the message and the speech of Allah.

The verse says:

“(Remember) When Moses said unto his family: ‘Verily I perceive a fire…” “…soon will I bring you news of it, or I will bring you a flaming brand, that you warm yourselves.”

This event happened by the same night when Moses was in a dark desert on the way toward Egypt, accompanied with his wife, Shu‘ayb’s daughter, and he lost the way. Then a terrible storm began to blow and at the same time his wife felt the pains of childbirth. Moses thought he severely needed to make a fire in order to use its warmth, but there was nothing in that desert for it.

As soon as he saw the light of a flame from distance, he became happy and took it as a sign of the existence of someone or some ones there. He told them that he would go and bring them either some news from it, or a burning firebrand so that they might warm themselves by it.

It is noteworthy that Moses says he brings ‘them’ news or a flaming band, (the pronoun of which plural). This may show that there had been a child or children with him too, because his marriage bad happened in Madyan ten years before that. Or it may be for the sake that, in that horrible desert, that idea could give some further calmness to his addressees.

In the next verse, the Qur’an indicates that Moses left his family there, and moved toward the place where he had seen a fire.

When he reached the fire he heard a voice, as the verse says:

“So when he came to it, a voice was heard: ‘Blessed is whoever is in the fire and whoever is about it, and Glory be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.”

The commentators of the Qur’an have delivered different ideas concerning who might be the person mentioned in the phrases:

“Whoever is in the fire”

and

“whoever is about it”.

What seems more probable is that, the objective of ‘the one in the fire’ is Moses who was so close to the fire found inside the green tree that as if he were inside the tree; and the objective of ‘the one about it’ is the near-stationed angels of Allah who, at that particular moment, had surrounded that sacred land.

Or, on the contrary, the objective of those in the fire, is the Divine angels, and the objective of ‘the one about it’ is Moses (as).

However, some Islamic narrations indicate that when Moses (as) approached the fire, he stopped and watched it carefully. He saw that from the inside of a green branch of the tree a flaming brand was shining. Every moment the flame was becoming brighter and brighter and the tree was growing more green and more beautiful.

Neither the heat of the fire was to burn the tree, nor the moist of the tree caused the fire to die. He wondered. He bowed to take some fire with the small piece of wood he had in his hand, but the fire came toward him.

He terrified and went back. Sometimes he tried to go toward the fire and sometimes the fire itself came toward him. Suddenly a voice was heard, giving him the glad tidings of revelation.

The purpose is that Moses approached the fire so nigh that he was proportionate to the phrase

‘whoever is in the fire’.

The third commentary which has been stated upon this phrase is that the purpose of

“whoever is in the fire”

is the Light of Allah which was shown by the burning firebrand; and the purpose of the phrase

“whoever is about it”

is Moses who was nigh to it.

However, in order that there would not appear here any misconception concerning materiality of Allah, at the end of the verse, the sentence:

“Glory be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds”

makes it clear that He is free from any defect, deficiency, materiality and material accidents.

Again a voice was heard which addressed Moses, saying:

“O’ Moses! Verily, I am Allah, The Mighty, The Wise;”

This sentence was for the sake that no doubt might remain in Moses’ mind and he would know that it was the Lord of the Worlds Who was speaking with him, not the flaming brand, nor the tree, the Lord Who does not fail, Who is ‘Mighty’ and Who is the Possessor of Wisdom and Device.

This meaning, in fact, is a premise for the statement of the miracle which will be referred to in the next holy verse, since miracle originates from two attributes of Allah: ‘Power’ and ‘Wisdom’. However, before discussing about the next verse, this question arises here that how did Moses understand and was assured that this voice was Allah’s, not other than that?

In answer to this question, it can be said that this voice, being accompanied with a clear miracle, viz., glittering a fire from inside the branch of a green tree, was a manifest reason that it was a Divine matter.

Moreover, as we will find out by the next verse, after this voice Moses was ordered a command which contained the miracles of ‘Rod and white hand’, and these two miracles were two other evidences for the reality of this voice.

Besides all of these things, principally, the Divine voice must have a particular quality which makes it separate from any other voice, and when one hears it, it affects on his heart so deeply that he never doubts that it is the voice of Allah.