What Is That in Your Hand?

Thereafter Allah (swt) treats of the punishment, wa-man aʿraḍa ʿan dhikrī. Before coming to that, however, a few other verses deserve to be singled out, verses of great inspiration — for there is much inspiration in this sūrah.

First there is:

What is that in your hand? He used to carry a staff about with him.

Qāla hiya ʿaṣāy. The ʿulamāʾ observe here that Allah asked him what was in his hand, and he could simply have said: this is my staff. Instead he embarks on a long account: it is my staff, I lean on it, I take support from it, I use it to gather leaves for my animals, and I have many other uses for it besides. Why did he go on? He wished only to prolong the exchange. It is the way of one who at last comes to speak with someone he has long been longing to speak with: he simply begins to speak. Wa-llāhu aʿlam.