Surah 51. Az-Zariyat

By the winds scattering 'dust',

  - Mustafa Khattab

By the (Winds) that scatter broadcast; ^{4986 4987}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Four things are mentioned in verses 1 to 4 as evidences or types of the certainty and unity of a Truth described in verses 5-6. What these things 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 these things are, their different modes of working are evidence of the power and goodness of Allah, 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.

Winds may blow strong, and scatter particles of dust far and wide; but they do not diminish by one jot the substance of Allah'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 Allah'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".

and 'the clouds' loaded with rain,

  - Mustafa Khattab

And those that lift and bear away heavy weights; ⁴⁹⁸⁸

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The things that lift and bear away heavy weights may be the Winds that carry the heavy rain-clouds or that sweep off every resistance from their path, or it may be the heavy moisture-laden clouds themselves. So works Revelation: it lifts and sweeps away the burdens of custom, superstition, or man's inertia, and ever leads onwards to the destined End.

and 'the ships' gliding with ease,

  - Mustafa Khattab

And those that flow with ease and gentleness; ⁴⁹⁸⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

These may be Winds that fill the sails of ships with gentle and favourable breezes, that carry men and merchandise to their destinations. Or they may be the ships themselves, whose smooth motion through the waters is described in many places, by the verb jara, "to flow", e.g., cf. ii. 164.

and 'the angels' administering affairs by 'Allah's' command!

  - Mustafa Khattab

And those that distribute and apportion by command ⁴⁹⁹⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

These may be Winds (or other agencies) that distribute and apportion moisture or rain or atmospheric pressure or other blessings of Allah, -not haphazard but by fixed laws, i. e., according to the Command of their Lord. So with Revelation. Its blessings are distributed all round, and it produces its marvellous effects sometimes in the most unlikely places and ways.

Indeed, what you are promised is true.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Verily that which ye are promised is true; ⁴⁹⁹¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

That which ye are promised: the Promise of Allah about Mercy and Forgiveness to the Penitent, and Justice and Penalty to the Rebellious, the promise of the Hereafter: the promise that all does not end here, but that there is a truer and more lasting world to come, for which this is but a preparation.