Surah An-Naml 27:1-14 - Quran Translation Commentary

(27:7) When Musa said to his family, ‘I perceive a fire; I shall forthwith bring you tiding from it⁷ or bring you a flaming brand that you may warm yourselves.⁸

(27:8) But when he came to it,⁹ he was called thus,¹⁰ ‘Blessed is he who is in the fire¹¹ and he who is around it;¹² and glory to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

(27:9) O Musa! Verily, it is I, Allah, the Mighty, the Wise.¹³

(27:10) Now, throw down your staff.’ But when he saw it quivering, as if a snake,¹⁴ he turned about, retreating, and turned not back. ‘O Musa, fear not. Truly, Messengers fear not in My presence.’

(27:11) Save him who wronged, then substituted a good after an evil, then I am All-forgiving, All-compassionate.¹⁵

(27:12) And thrust your hand in your pocket. It will come forth shining white without any blemish – among nine signs to Fir`awn and his people. Surely they are a rebellious people.

(27:13) But when there came to them Our visible signs,¹⁶ they said, ‘This is plain magic.’

(27:14) And they rejected them, though their inner selves were convinced thereof - wrongfully and out of pride.¹⁷ See then what was the end of those given to corruptions!

Commentary

3. Mubin has the dual meaning of being clear as well as making something clear. Mawdudi comments: “Kitabun Mubin,” a Clear Book, means the following: (i) That this Book expounds its teachings, instructions and commands in clear terms. (ii) That it clearly indicates the difference between Truth and falsehood. (iii) That it is also clear in that it is evidently the Book of God. Anyone who reads it with an open mind can see that it is not something that Muhammad (peace be on him) could have authored.”

4. So the Qur’an is a composition of clear verses which are a guidance and a glad tiding to those who possess the qualities stated in this verse (Ibn Jarir).

Yusuf Ali expounds this a little more: “Revelation is here presented in three aspects: (i) it explains things, the attributes of Allah, our own position, and the world around; (ii) it directs us to right conduct and keeps us from evil; (iii) to those who have Faith and accept its guidance, it gives the good news of forgiveness, purification, and the achievement of salvation.”

Sayyid adds: “All that the Qur’an consists of, by way of the systems, laws, and morals, are all based on faith. Therefore, he whose heart does not believe in Allah, who does not receive this Qur’an with the belief that it is from Allah, and that what it presents is the way that Allah wishes for him … he who does not have this kind of faith, will not be guided by the Qur’an, nor will he obtain any benefit from the good tidings mentioned therein.

“The Qur’an consists of treasures of guidance, knowledge, and a way. But faith is the key to these treasures. These treasures will never open up without the key of faith. Those in the past who believed in this Qur’an in the manner that it should be believed in, perceived the supernatural with its help. But when this Qur’an became a book whose verses are to be sung in a lyrical manner, then it reaches the ears but does not reach the hearts. It provides no benefit, but remains a treasure without a key.

“This Surah presents the qualities of those believers who find the Qur’an a guidance and a glad tiding: ‘Those who perform the Prayer (assiduously and spiritedly), pay the zakah and in the Hereafter – they firmly believe.’

“These believers then, who remember Allah, are faithful to His commandments, who are fearful of being questioned in the Hereafter, who hope to gain Allah’s approval, these are the ones whose hearts open up for the Qur’an. They find it a guidance, and a glad tiding, a Light in their souls, and something that urges them to action in their lives. It becomes their provision which helps them achieve their goals.

“As for those, ‘who do not believe in the Hereafter, We have decked out fair for them their works, they are therefore wandering blindly.’”

5. “Those who reject Allah and follow Evil have a good conceit of themselves. Their deeds are pleasing to no one else. As they have rejected Allah’s (swt) guidance, they are allowed to hug their own self-conceit, and given further respite for repentance. But they follow their own whims and wander about in distraction, as they have no standards such as guide the godly” (Yusuf Ali).

6. The painful chastisement as alluded to here, unfolded itself at Badr, when the best of their men were slaughtered, leaving the rest of the Makkans in grief (Zamakhshari, expanded).

7. Or, bring back information about the way they had lost (Ibn Kathir).

8. Musa (asws) was on his way to Egypt from Madyan and it was a cold night (Ibn Jarir).

Significantly, as he had wished, writes Ibn Kathir, Musa brought back both: a great news (that he was appointed a Messenger) and a great flaming fire, i.e., the Nur of guidance.

9. When he came to the tree, Musa faced a most amazing sight. The fire was engulfing a green tree. It seemed to be increasing in its intensity while the tree grew greener. And, as he raised his eyes to look above, he perceived that the Nur was rising up from the tree all the way to the clouds (Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

10. “According to Surah al-Qasas, this voice came from a tree in the hallowed ground. It seems that there was something burning somewhere towards one end of the valley, but nothing was on fire, nor was there any smoke. It was a strange kind of fire within which there stood a green tree from where, suddenly, this voice emanated” (Mawdudi).

11. A variety of interpretations have come from the earliest scholars. Ibn `Abbas thought that the allusion by the words, “Blessed is he who is in the fire” is to Allah Himself. It was He who was there and the fire was his Nur (Light). That was also the opinion of Sa`id b. Jubayr (Ibn Jarir, Qurtubi).

He did not mean of course, that Allah was there, in Person, in the sense in which pagans assume, who believe in hulul. On the contrary, as we know, nothing can contain Allah, nor the fire before Musa could contain Him. Perhaps Ibn `Abbas alluded to tajalli. Yet, we must caution, even tajalli could not have been in the sense in which the word is commonly understood, that is, in the sense of manifestation – the sense in which Allah denied Musa when He denied him the Beatific Vision (7: 143). Had, in that instance, Allah’s own tajalli been there in the fire, Musa would not have later asked that he be allowed the Vision. The tajalli then, if it was there in the fire, was tajalli al-mithali (Representative Manifestation) and not tajjali al-dhati (Personal Manifestation) – Mufti Shafi`.

Hasan and Qatadah however thought that the allusion was to Nur. It was Allah’s Nur which was blessed. But Mujahid thought that it was the fire itself which was blessed. Ibn `Abbas also figures in this opinion. A fourth opinion was that of Muhammad b. Ka`b who said that the allusion by the Nur of this instance is to Allah Himself (Ibn Jarir). Ibn `Abbas also seems to have shared this view (Qurtubi).

Qurtubi also writes: The interpretation (of the opinions of Ibn `Abbas and others) is that He is manifested in every deed which leads to the Doer of the deed. That is to say, blessed was the power and dominion that was there in the fire. It is also said that blessed was the command of Allah that was there in the fire which Allah placed as a sign for Musa. To this context belongs the hadith recorded by Muslim as well as Ibn Majah whose version runs as follows:

إِنَّ اللَّه لَا يَنَام وَلَا يَنْبَغِي لَهُ أَنْ يَنَام , يَخْفِض الْقِسْط وَيَرْفَعهُ , يُرْفَع إِلَيْهِ عَمَل النَّهَار قَبْل عَمَل اللَّيْل , وَعَمَل اللَّيْل قَبْل عَمَل النَّهَار , حِجَابه النُّور , لَوْ كَشَفَهُ لَأَحْرَقَتْ سُبُحَات وَجْهه مَا اِنْتَهَى إِلَيْهِ بَصَره مِنْ خَلْقه

Abu Musa said, “The Prophet (saws) stood up among us and spoke of five things. He said, ‘Allah does not sleep, nor does it behoove Him to sleep. He raises the Scale and lowers it. The night’s deeds are raised to Him before the deeds of the day and the day’s deeds before the deeds of the night. Nur is His veil. (According to Abu Bakr’s narration, Fire). If He unveiled it, the Blaze of His Face would burn down everything that it reached of His creation.” Abu `Ubaydah – the narrator – then recited this ayah, “Blessed is he who is in the fire and he who is around it, and glory to Allah, Lord of the worlds].”

In the above hadith the textual words law kashafahu mean to say, “if He removed the veils from the eyes of the creations.” As for the hijab, they are, as Ibn Jurayj said, seven: Hijab al-`Izzah (the veil of Might), Hijab al-Mulk (the veil of Dominion), Hijab al-Sultan (the veil of Power), Hijab al-Nar (the veil of Fire), Hijab al-Nur (the veil of Light), Hijab al-Ghamam (the veil of Clouds) and Hijab al-Ma’ (the veil of Water). In other words, concludes Qurtubi, Allah (swt) is not veiled, but, on the contrary, the creations are veiled.

Qurtubi also quotes Sa`id b. Jubayr’s opinion that “It was Fire there. Allah (swt) made him hear His Speech from its side and showed him His powers from that side.” It is in the same vein, adds Qurtubi, as it is written in the Torah (Deut. 33: 2), “The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Se`ir unto them; He shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands saints; from His right hand went a fiery law for them.” In this verse of the Tawrah, the allusion by the “Lord’s coming from Sinai” is to Musa, by “rising up from Se’ir” it is to `Isa (asws), and by “shining forth from mount Paran” it is to our Prophet (saws).

The translation of the above verse is from The King James Red Letter Bible, Florida Publication, dateless. It took this writer quite some effort to locate this familiar verse because, for no apparent reason, the index shows several entries for the word Paran. They are all in proper order: except this verse. The reference to it is placed out of order, second last, almost tucked out of sight! Is it considered crucial by the Jews and Christians? (Au.)

Ibn Kathir does not report Ibn `Abbas’ opinion that it was the Lord of the Worlds who was alluded to when it was said, “Blessed is he who is in the fire” but quotes his other opinion also that it was the Nur of the Lord of the worlds.

Zamakhshari points out that the allusion is not to the spot where the fire was, but rather to a buq`ah al-mubarakah, as alluded to in verse 30 of Al-Qasas. It says,

فَلَمَّا أَتَاهَا نُودِيَ مِنْ شَاطِئِ الْوَادِ الْأَيْمَنِ فِي الْبُقْعَةِ الْمُبَارَكَةِ مِنَ الشَّجَرَةِ [القصص: 30[

“He was called from the fringe of the valley on the right in the buq`ah mubarakah.”

Alusi uses the occasion to demonstrate that the attribution of the concepts of hulul, ittihad, or tajsim to the Sufis is incorrect. But rather, the ayah leads us to believe that Allah (swt) manifested His tajalli in the fire which is very different from what we understand as hulul. A person’s image in a mirror for example, is not the person himself and cannot be said to have attained hulul with the mirror. (Does anyone believe that the sun’s image in the mirror is the whole sun in its true size? - Shabbir). Hence, it was immediately added, “Glory to Allah, Lord of the worlds,” to deny all that can be falsely and foolishly attributed to Him. Allah cannot be reduced to any human level of understanding. He manifests Himself as He wills. A trustworthy report says,

سبحانك حيث كنت

“Glory to You, wherever (or whatever) You be.” (Slightly reworded).

And the hadith that Alusi quotes is in Tabarani which says, “Allah has an angel who, if he was told to swallow all that is there in the seven heavens and earths in one gulp, he could do it. His chanting of praise is,

إنّ لله تعالى مَلَكاً لوْ قِيلَ لهْ التَقِمِ السَّمَوَاتِ السَّبْعَ والأَرَضينَ بِلُقْمَةٍ واحِدَةٍ لَفعَلَ تَسْبِيحُهُ سُبْحانَكَ حَيْثُ كُنْتَ

The report has been preserved by Tabarani in his Kabir as well as in his Awsat. Haythami however remarked that he could not trace the biography of one of the narrators. In short, to him it is not a very strong narrative, although meaning wise, it cannot be contended (Au.).

12. According to Ibn `Abbas and Hasan, the allusion by “he who is around it” is to angels (Ibn Jarir). Ibn Kathir reports `Ikrimah, Sa`id b. Jubayr and Qatadah also of this opinion.

Muhammad b. Ka`b thought that Musa was also included (Ibn Jarir).

Zamakshari thinks that by “around it” the allusion could be to the whole of the Syrian lands about which Allah has said that it is a blessed patch of land.

Sayyid writes: “Who was in the fire? And who was around it? The preferred opinion is that it was not a fire of the kind that we use. It was a fire whose origin was the higher world… A fire lit by the pure souls of the angels, constituting the great guidance… It was (perhaps) the presence of those pure souls that made it look like fire. It was said, “Blessed is he who is in the fire” to announce of the blessings of the upper world on the angels within the fire and those around it, and Musa was of those who were around it.”

13. To the question, who called? One suggestion is it was, “Verily, it is I, Allah, the Mighty, the Wise” (Qurtubi).

14. Jaann is that small snake which slithers very fast (Razi, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

Musa’s reaction should be of no surprise. A snake is a snake. It has been observed that when it enters into a cave in a cold night, other animals, including the ferocious ones, quietly vacate the cave. Further, could Musa be sure in that dark night that it was not his own staff? Or, is it possible that in the dark cold night he thought he was all along holding a stiff snake that came alive when thrown into the warmth of the fire? (Au.)

The Prophet (saws) has, (according to a hadith in the Sahihayn: H. Ibrahim) prohibited that the domestic-Jann be killed (Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

Scholars explain that the prohibition applied to his time, and to the city of Madinah alone. It is said that during the time of the Prophet Jinns trying to learn about Islam visited Madinah in the form of snakes. One was spotted under the bed of a Companion, but he prevented it from being disturbed (Au.).

15. How is the verse to be understood if the words “Save him who wronged” are understood to be alluding to the Messengers? One explanation is that the allusion is to their minor errors, committed by such Prophets as Adam (asws), Yunus (asws), Da’ud (asws), Sulayman (asws) and others, not to forget Musa (asws) who had unintentionally punched the Copt to death (Zamakhshari, Razi, Qurtubi and others).

16. The textual mubsirah should be better translated as “those that make visible” or “light-giving” or “illuminating” (Ibn Jarir).

17. That is, if it is asked, “why was it that they rejected the signs after their hearts were convinced?” the answer is, “out of transgression and pride” (Ibn Jarir).