The Quran

Preface

وَهُوَ الَّذي يُرسِلُ الرِّياحَ بُشرًا بَينَ يَدَي رَحمَتِهِ ۖ حَتّىٰ إِذا أَقَلَّت سَحابًا ثِقالًا سُقناهُ لِبَلَدٍ مَيِّتٍ فَأَنزَلنا بِهِ الماءَ فَأَخرَجنا بِهِ مِن كُلِّ الثَّمَراتِ ۚ كَذٰلِكَ نُخرِجُ المَوتىٰ لَعَلَّكُم تَذَكَّرونَ

Yusuf Ali

It is He Who sendeth the winds like heralds of glad tidings, going before¹ His mercy: when they have carried the heavy-laden clouds, We drive them to a land that is dead, make rain to descend thereon, and produce every kind of harvest therewith: thus shall We raise up the dead: perchance ye may remember.

The Parable is complete in its triple significance. (1) In the physical world the winds go like heralds of glad tidings; they are the advance guard, behind which is coming a great army of winds driving heavily laden clouds before it; the wise Providence of God is their General, who directs them towards a parched land, on which the clouds deliver their gladdening showers of mercy, which convert the dead land into a living, fertile, and beautiful land bearing a rich harvest (Cf. 25:48). (2) In the spiritual world, the winds are the great motive forces in the mind of man, or in the world around him, that bring the clouds or instruments of God’s Mercy, which descend and fertilise souls hitherto spiritually dead. (3) If we can see or experience such things in our life here below, can we doubt the resurrection?