Sad · Makki · ayah 36 of 88

Sad 38:36

فَسَخَّرْنَا لَهُ ٱلرِّيحَ تَجْرِى بِأَمْرِهِۦ رُخَآءً حَيْثُ أَصَابَ

“So We subjected to him the wind blowing by his command, gently, wherever he directed,”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah answered at once, and the wind no hand can hold ran softly wherever Sulayman aimed, because Allah had made it yield.

A reflection

Whose command moved the wind?

Fa-sakhkharnā lahu al-rīḥ: so We subjected the wind to him. The little fa- carries two things at once: 'because of this' and 'straight after'. Sulayman asked, and the answer came. One concise commentary opens the ayah simply: so We answered him.

Now look at the two commands in the ayah. The wind ran bi-amrihi, by his command. But it ran by his command only because of sakhkharnā, Our subjecting. His word worked inside Allah's word, never beside it. The lexicons describe taskhīr as driving a thing to its set purpose. Anything managed that cannot free itself is musakhkhar. Sulayman did not tame the wind. It was handed to him already tamed.

The commentators note what that wind could do. It carried him, his army and his court. By another ayah, it covered a month's journey in a morning and a month's in an evening (34:12).

Set beside it a scene from Madinah, recorded in Sahih Muslim. When a strong wind blew, the Prophet ﷺ would pray. O Allah, I ask You for its good, the good within it, and the good it is sent with. And I seek refuge in You from its harm. His wife reported that when clouds gathered, his face changed. He went in and out, came and went, until the rain fell.

The best of creation did not command the wind. He asked its Lord.

That should humble the ego at its root. We speak of 'controlling' our lives, our diaries, our homes. A father plans his daughter's nikah in his garden in October. For a week he checks the forecast on his phone every hour, as if refreshing it could move the weather. The gusts come anyway. In the end the ceremony moves into his sister's front room, and it is lovely.

Someone may ask whether stories like this exist to glorify a king, or a God who wants applause. Allah needs no praise from the wind or from us. He showed what He can make yield, so that we stop pretending we make things yield.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.