Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:71
سُورَةُ الوَاقِعَةِ · Meccan · Verse 71 of 96
أَفَرَءَيْتُمُ ٱلنَّارَ ٱلَّتِى تُورُونَ
Translation
Consider the fire you kindle-
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Have you considered the fire you kindle?' al-Saadi and Ibn Ashur note the final example in the series, fire, the ancient tool of warmth, cooking, and light, struck by human hands but from a source humans did not make. Ask yourself: fire feels like the ultimate human mastery, the technology that separated us from the animals, that we 'make' at will. The verse is about to show that even this is drawn from a gift I did not create. It picks the very emblem of human power and traces it back to God. It is a pattern worth noticing across all four examples, my body, my food, my water, my fire: each is something I use and take credit for, and each, traced back one step, is His. What else that I proudly 'make' would dissolve into gift the moment I traced it to its source?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:71 is discussed in 7 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:71 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.