Surah 36. Yasin, Ayah 80

Cf. the ancient Arabian proverb, "In every tree there is a fire" (Zamakhshari): evidently an allusion to the metamorphosis of green - i e., water-containing - plants into fuel, be it through desiccation or man-made carbonization (charcoal), or by a millenial, subterranean process of decomposition into oil or coal. In a spiritual sense, this "fire" seems also to symbolize the God-given warmth and light of human reason spoken of in verse {77} above.

 The verse refers to two types of Arabian trees, markh and ’afâr, which produce fire when their green branches are rubbed together.

Even older and more primitive than the method of striking fire against steel and flint is the method of using twigs of trees for the purpose. In the E.B., 14th edition. ix. 262, will be found a picture of British Guiana boys making a fire by rotating a stick in a round hole in a piece of wood lying on the ground. The Arab method was to use a wooden instrument called the Zinad. It consisted of two pieces to be rubbed together. The upper one was called the 'Afar or Zand, and the lower the Markh. The markh is a twig from a kind of spreading tree, the Cynanchuin viminale, of which the branches are bare, without leaves or thorns. When they are tangled together, and a wind blows, they get ignited and strike fire (Lane's Arabic Lexicon). In modern Arabic Zand is by analogy applied to the flint pierce used for striking fire with steel.