“And he sets forth for Us a comparison, forgetting his own creation. He says, ‘Who will give life to the bones when they have decayed?’ Say, ‘He who brought them into being the first time will give them life, and He has full knowledge of every created thing—the One who made fire for you from the green tree, and then from it you kindle. Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like of them? Yes indeed; and He is the Ever-Creating, the All-Knowing. His command, when He wills a thing, is only that He says to it, “Be,” and it is.’” (78–82)

“And he sets forth for Us a comparison, forgetting his own creation”—that is, the beginning of his own affair. Then he says, “Who will give life to the bones when they have decayed?” That is, when they have become worn away. The word used is not the feminine form, because it is an altered form of the feminine pattern; and every word altered from its original form and pattern is treated differently from its cognates (1), as in His saying: “Your mother was not an unchaste woman” (Maryam, 28). There, the feminine ending was omitted because the form used had been altered from baghiyah (“an unchaste woman”).

“Say, ‘He who brought them into being will give them life’”—that is, He created them (2)—“the first time; and He has full knowledge of every created thing.”

“The One who made fire for you from the green tree.” Ibn Abbas said: “They are two trees: one is called markh and the other afar. Whoever wishes to obtain fire from them cuts two green twigs from them, like two tooth-sticks, with water dripping from them. He then rubs the markh against the afar, and fire emerges from them by Allah’s permission (3).”

The Arabs say: “There is fire in every tree, but the markh and afar excel.” The sages said: “There is fire in every tree except the jujube tree.” “And then from it you kindle”—that is, you strike and kindle fire from that tree. He then mentions that which is greater than the creation of man, saying:

“Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able...” Yaqub recited it as yaqdiru (“is able”), using the verbal form, “...to create the like of them? Yes indeed”—that is, say: “Yes indeed; He is able to do so”—“and He is the Ever-Creating,” [creating one creation after another] (4), “the All-Knowing,” fully knowing all that He has created.