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Sura 51
Aya 1

Chapter 51

The Scatterersal-Dhāriyāt ( الذاريات )

60 verses • revealed at Meccan

»The surah that opens with the oath of the Divine One swearing by The Scattering winds that stream far and wide bearing the rain clouds of His mercy. It takes its name from verse 1, which mentions the “scatterers” (dhāriyāt). The surah gives several signs of nature as proof of the Resurrection, among them the scattering winds. The disbelievers are reminded of the fate that befell previous rebellious generations and the Prophet is urged to carry on reminding.«

The surah is also known as Scattering (Winds), The Dispersers, The Dispersing, The Scattering Winds, The Winds, The Winds That Scatter, Winnowing (Winds)

بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ

Yusuf Ali: In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

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وَالذّارِياتِ ذَروًا

Yusuf Ali

By the (Winds)1 that scatter broadcast;2
  • Four agencies are mentioned in verses 1 to 4 as evidences or types or symbols of the certainty and unity of a Truth described in verses 5-6. What these agencies are is described by certain adjectival participles, the noun understood being usually taken to be “Winds”: the word for Wind (Rih) being feminine in Arabic. Some Commentators however understand other nouns as being implied, e.g., angels in all four verses, or different things in each of the four verses. Whatever the agencies are, their different modes of working are evidence of the power and goodness of God, the Unity of His Plan, and the certainty of Good and Evil reaching their own destined ends, when Judgment and Justice will have given each one his due. (R).
  • Winds may blow strong, and scatter particles of dust far and wide; but they do not diminish by one jot the substance of God’s material creation; on the contrary they help to readjust things. They reshape the configuration of the earth; in the vegetable kingdom they carry seeds about and plant new seeds in old soils; in the region of air they produce mighty changes in temperature and pressure that affect animal and vegetable life; they carry the moisture of equatorial Africa to the parched plains of India; and so on. Yet they are just one little agency showing God’s working in the material world. So in the spiritual world. Revelation works mighty changes; it may be resisted, but the resistance will be swept away; it ever points to the one Great Final Event, “to which the whole Creation moves”.