Sūrah Al-Mursalāt The Emissaries
المرسلات
50 verses, Makkī. By the emissaries sent one after another the winds, or the angels oaths sworn to the Day of Judgement. The refrain repeated ten times: "Woe that Day to the deniers!" The destroyed nations. The Day the sky splits. Do not eat or enjoy today that Day will be repeated as punishment for what you denied.
Surah Overview
Key Themes from Ibn Kathīr
What are the Mursalāt? (77:1–6): "By those sent forth in gusts and the tempests blowing violently and those spreading extensively and those separating distinctly and those delivering reminder excusing or warning." Ibn Kathīr cites both interpretations: the mursalāt are winds (sent by Allah successively), or angels (sent with revelation). He notes that both are mentioned in Qurʾān elsewhere and both are possible here. The oaths are made to the reality of the Day of Judgement.
The ten refrains woe to the deniers (77:15–49): After describing each scene the previous nations destroyed, the sky split, the mountains scattered, the Day they are sorted the refrain sounds: "Woe that Day to the deniers!" Ibn Kathīr: the refrain is not repetition for its own sake it is warning layered on warning. The believer hears it as relief (they are not among the deniers); the disbeliever hears it as threat.
- The previous deniers destroyed (77:16–19): "Did We not destroy the former peoples? Then We will follow them with the later ones this is how We deal with the criminals." Ibn Kathīr: the Quraysh's ancestors who rejected prophets were destroyed and the Quraysh are warned of the same fate if they follow the same path.
- Three shades of Hell (77:30–33): "Go to that which you used to deny go to a shadow of three columns not offering shade and not availing against the flame it throws sparks like the palace as if they were yellow camels." Ibn Kathīr: even the shade of Hell is not shade a parody of the comforting shade the believers enjoy in Paradise.
- The Day of decision (77:13–14): "Indeed the Day of Decision is an appointed time the Day the trumpet is blown and you will come in crowds." Ibn Kathīr: the Day of Faṣl (decision/separation) between believers and disbelievers, between truth and falsehood, between mercy and punishment.
- Eat and enjoy briefly (77:43–46): "Eat and drink in satisfaction for what you used to do. Indeed We thus reward the doers of good." Then to the deniers: "Eat and enjoy yourselves a little indeed you are criminals." Ibn Kathīr: the contrast believers eat with gratitude in Paradise eternally; disbelievers eat with shame in the dunya temporarily.
- They do not bow (77:48): "And when it is said to them: Bow down they do not bow." Ibn Kathīr: refusal to pray not inability. The most direct sin referenced as cause of the woe: they were called to prayer and refused. In this life that refusal is still reversible; in the hereafter it is too late.