“When he saw a fire, he said to his family, ‘Stay here. I have seen a fire. Perhaps I can bring you a burning brand from it, or find some guidance at the fire.’ Then, when he came to it, he was called, ‘O Moses!’” (10–11)

“When he saw a fire”: Moses had sought Shu‘ayb’s permission to return from Midian to Egypt to visit his mother and sister. Shu‘ayb permitted him, so he set out with his family and possessions. It was winter, and he took a route other than the main road for fear of the rulers of the Levant. His wife was ill, and she could not tell night from day. He journeyed through the wilderness, unfamiliar with its routes, until the journey brought him to the right-hand western side of Mount Sinai on a dark, snowy, bitterly cold night. His wife then went into labour, and he struck his fire-steel, but it produced no spark.

It has also been said that Moses was a deeply protective man, so he would travel alongside the caravan at night and leave them by day, lest his wife be seen. One time, on a dark winter night, he lost his way, when Allah, Exalted is He, intended to honour him. He began striking his fire-steel, but it would not produce a spark. Then he saw a fire in the distance, to the left of the road, on the side of the mountain. So he said to his family, “Stay here” (1)—that is, remain. Hamzah recited the possessive pronoun in “his family” as -hu here and in Surah al-Qasas. “I have seen” means: I have perceived. “A fire; perhaps I can bring you a burning brand from it”: that is, a flame from the fire. A burning brand is a piece taken from the fire on the end of a stick from the main blaze. “Or find some guidance at the fire”: that is, find someone by the fire who can show me the way.

“Then, when he came to it”: he saw a green tree, [from its base to its top, surrounded by a white fire blazing with the utmost radiance; yet the light of the fire did not alter] (2) the tree’s greenness, nor did the tree’s greenness alter the fire’s light.

Ibn Mas‘ud said: “The tree was a green acacia.”

Qatadah, Muqatil, and al-Kalbi said: “It was a boxthorn tree.”

Wahb said: “It was a bramble.”

It was also said that it was a jujube tree; this was narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him (3).

The scholars of Quranic exegesis said: What Moses saw was not fire, but light. It was described as fire because Moses thought it was fire.

Most exegetes said that it was the light of the Lord, Exalted is He. This was the view of Ibn ‘Abbas, ‘Ikrimah, and others.