Sūrah Adh-Dhāriyāt The Scattering Winds
الذاريات
60 verses, Makkī. By the scattering winds, the rain-carrying clouds, the swift-sailing ships, and the angels distributing command the promise of resurrection is true. The angels visit Ibrāhīm ﷺ with news of a son and then destroy the people of Lūṭ ﷺ. The creation of everything in pairs. I created jinn and humans only to worship Me.
Surah Overview
Key Themes from Ibn Kathīr
The purpose of creation (51:56–58): "I did not create the jinn and humans except to worship Me. I do not want from them any provision, nor do I want them to feed Me. Indeed Allah is the Provider, the Possessor of Power, the Strong." Ibn Kathīr: worship (ʿibādah) here means complete obedience and submission but Ibn Kathīr also cites the interpretation that "to worship Me" includes "to know Me" the purpose is awareness and relationship with the Creator.
Ibrāhīm's generous hospitality (51:24–27): "Has there come to you the story of the honoured guests of Ibrāhīm? When they entered upon him and said: Peace he said: Peace strangers. Then he went to his family and came with a fat roasted calf and placed it near them." Ibn Kathīr: Ibrāhīm ﷺ slaughtered a calf without being asked the model of generous hospitality to guests, not waiting to be asked but giving the best immediately.
- The four cosmic oaths (51:1–6): By the scattering winds, the burden-bearing clouds, the easy-flowing ships, and the angels distributing commands what you are promised is true, and judgement will certainly occur. Ibn Kathīr: the natural world itself swears to the reality of the hereafter.
- Those who sleep little at night (51:17–18): "They used to sleep only a little of the night, and in the hours before dawn they would seek forgiveness." Ibn Kathīr: the awliyāʾ are defined partly by their night worship and their pre-dawn istighfār the most blessed hours for connection with Allah.
- Everything created in pairs (51:49): "And of everything We created two mates perhaps you will remember." Ibn Kathīr: pairs in all creation male/female, sky/earth, night/day, east/west the universe built on complementarity pointing to the One who has no partner.
- Warning to the Quraysh by example (51:30–46): The people of Mūsā, ʿĀd, Thamūd, Nūḥ all destroyed. "So flee to Allah I am a clear warner to you from Him." Ibn Kathīr: the pattern of history repeating every rejecting nation destroyed by the same divine law.
- The sky built with hands (51:47): "And the sky We built with power, and indeed We are expanding it." Ibn Kathīr: an ayah cited in modern discussions of cosmology the Qurʾānic reference to the expanding universe, though Ibn Kathīr himself understood "mūsiʿūn" as referring to Allah's vast power in building the heavens.