Yaseen (Yaseen)

80. “He Who made for you fire from the green tree, and behold! from it you kindle (fire).”

Allah gathers the opposites. He can gather water and fire, which do not have consistency with each other.

In this verse, the Qur’an brings some more discussions about the subject of Resurrection, and follows it by three or four interesting ways.

At first, it says:

“He Who made for you fire from the green tree, and behold! from it you kindle (fire).”

Allah is also able to give life to these rotten bones. What a wonderful and interesting meaning it is! that the more we contemplate about it, the more and deeper concepts it delivers to us.

In principle, many of the verses of the Qur’an contain several meanings. Some of them are simple for all people, in any time and any place, while some others are deep for the elect, and, finally, some of them are completely deep which are for the elites of the elect, or for other times and centuries in far distanced future.

In the meantime, these meanings do not contrast with each other; and in the same moment they are gathered in an expressive concept.

The first interpretation that many of the earlier Islamic commentators have mentioned for it, and it is a simple and clear meaning which is understandable for all people, is that: in ancient times, it was a custom among Arabs that for kindling fire they used the wood of some special trees called ‘Markh’ and ‘‘Afar’, which grew in the deserts of Arabia.

The Arabic terms /marx/ and /‘afar/ were the names of two kinds of kindling wood, the earlier was put in the below and the latter was put over it, and like a kindling stone, a spark came out from them and, in fact, they were used instead of today match. The Qur’an implicitly says: that the Lord, Who can bring out fire from these green trees, is also able to give life to the dead.

Water and fire are two opposite things. The One Who can put them beside each other, has the ability to put ‘life’ beside ‘death’ and ‘death’ beside ‘life’.

Praise upon the Creator of existence Who keeps ‘fire’ inside ‘water’ and holds ‘water’ in the middle of ‘fire’. It is certain that giving life to the dead people is not a difficult thing for Him.

If we step out beyond this meaning, we reach a more punctilious commentary, and it is that the property of kindling fire by the wood of trees is not limited to the wood of ‘Marakh’ and ‘Afar, but this property exists in all trees and in all of the materials of the world, (although the wood of the abovementioned two trees, because of their materials and their specific gravity, are more appropriate for this action).

In short, if any piece of wood of any trees strikes hard to another piece, they produce spark, even it is the wood of the green trees.

It is for this reason that sometimes there happen some vast and horrible fire accidents inside forests that nobody has been their factor; their only factor has been the strong blow of winds and storms that has caused the branches of trees to crush to each other and from between them a spark has come to burn dry leaves and then the blow of wind has helped it, and this has been the main factor.

This is the very spark of electricity which appears by friction and rubbing. This is the same fire which is hidden inside of all particles of the beings of the world and, at the time of friction and rubbing, it shows itself in such a way, He creates ‘fire’ from ‘a green tree’.

This is a vaster commentary which makes the perspective of gathering of opposites in creation vaster, and which shows subsistence in ‘destruction’ more clear.

But, here, there is a third commentary which is deeper than that, which has been found out by the help of modern science and we have called it ‘the resurrection of energies’.

Explanation: One of the important actions of plants is the subject of ‘taking carbon’ from air and making vegetal-cellules, the main parts of which are: ‘Carbon’, ‘Oxygen’ and ‘Hydrogen’.

Now, we may see how is this cellule made? The small parts of trees and plants take the carbonic gas from air and analyse it. Then, they release its oxygen and keep its carbon in themselves. They combine it with water and make the wood of trees from it. For more information, you may refer to the books written in this regard.

At the end, the action of kindling fire by using the wood of trees, though it is a simple matter in our view, a paying careful attention to it makes it clear that it is one of the most surprising matters, because the most part of materials of which a tree is formed is water and some particles of the soil, and neither of them is combustible.

What a power is this that has made this energetic matter from water, soil, (and air) which has been used closely in the life of men for thousands years.