Ar-Rum · Makki · ayah 51 of 60

Ar-Rum 30:51

وَلَئِنْ أَرْسَلْنَا رِيحًا فَرَأَوْهُ مُصْفَرًّا لَّظَلُّوا۟ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِۦ يَكْفُرُونَ

“But if We should send a [bad] wind and they saw [their crops] turned yellow, they would remain thereafter disbelievers.[1154]”

Saheeh International

Essence

One scorching wind, one yellowed field, and the same people who rejoiced spend the day denying every favour that came before.

A reflection

Mercy is the rule; the harmful wind is an 'if'

In late August a farmer stands beside a full grain silo with his teenage son. He slaps the steel side and it rings. 'We're set for two years,' he says. Neither of them looks at the sky.

Compare how this ayah speaks with 30:48. There, Allah said: Allāhu alladhī yursilu al-riyāḥ, Allah is the One who sends the winds. It is a plain statement, in a verb of continuing action. Here He says wa-la-in arsalnā rīḥan: and if We were to send a wind. One classical commentator stopped at the difference. The winds of mercy are reported as a fact because they never stop. The harmful wind comes only as an 'if'.

He added an observation from ordinary life. Useful winds blow night and day, over plains and hills. Scorching winds come only at certain times, in certain places. The Quran's grammar matches the world. Mercy is the rule. The destroying wind is the exception He holds back.

He also noticed the numbers. Mercy comes as riyāḥ, winds, plural, because rain needs many breaths of air. Harm comes as rīḥ, one wind, because a single concentrated blast can ruin a field. Another commentator saw in this whole passage the side of mercy outweighing the side of punishment.

The ego needs to hear both halves. The silo is full only because the plural winds kept coming. And one singular wind could still turn the next crop muṣfarr, yellowed. The root of that word also gives ṣifr, an empty vessel. Yellow, in this ayah, is the colour of a store about to be empty.

Does a Lord who reminds us that He could send such a wind need our fear or praise? He needs nothing from us. The reminder protects us from the farmer's sentence, 'We're set'.

Slap the silo if you like. Then thank the One who keeps the plural winds blowing.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.