Surah Ya-Sin 36:80
سُورَةُ يسٓ · Meccan · Verse 80 of 83
ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلشَّجَرِ ٱلْأَخْضَرِ نَارًۭا فَإِذَآ أَنتُم مِّنْهُ تُوقِدُونَ
Translation
It is He who produces fire for you out of the green tree- lo and behold!- and from this you kindle fire.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'He who produced for you fire from the green tree, and at once you kindle from it.' Ibn Ashur and al-Biqa'i marvel at the reconciled opposites: fire drawn out of a green, moisture-laden tree, flame from the very thing that should quench it. The One who unites such opposites, life inside what looks lifeless, fire inside water-filled wood, can effortlessly bring living from dead. Ask yourself: I assume opposites cancel, that where there's 'water' there can be no 'fire', that a situation soaked in death cannot hold life. This verse points to the green branch that yields a flame as proof that my Lord routinely joins what I think cannot coexist. What in my life have I written off as too 'green', too dead-seeming, to ever spark, forgetting Whose signature is fire from a wet tree?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i, al-Saadi.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Ya-Sin 36:80 is discussed in 5 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Ya-Sin 36:80 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.