An-Naba · Makki · ayah 14 of 40

An-Naba 78:14

وَأَنزَلْنَا مِنَ ٱلْمُعْصِرَٰتِ مَآءً ثَجَّاجًا

“And sent down from the rain clouds pouring water”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah wrings the heavy clouds like cloth and the water comes pouring, poured again and again, a gift that arrives in torrents.

A reflection

The lawn and the desert

In a desert city, a very rich man keeps an emerald lawn behind his walls. Tankers arrive every night to water it. Guests admire it. He is proud of it, as a sign of what money can do. Then one winter night it rains, properly, for hours. Within days the bare desert beyond his wall has a faint green haze across it, as far as anyone can see. No tanker came.

And We sent down from the pressing clouds water, pouring, says the ayah. The sources explain that the rain comes from clouds that are ready to release it, or from winds that drive and press the clouds. Either way, the verb belongs to Allah: We sent it down. The water arrives thajjāj, pouring in torrents, one fall following another.

This is a gentle correction for pride. We can pipe water, store it, bottle it and truck it across a city. All of that is real, and useful. But every drop we move was first sent down. The lawn behind the wall is kept alive by effort. The desert beyond it is brought alive by a gift, and on a scale no fortune can match.

The ego likes to confuse managing a blessing with making it. The farmer who irrigates well, the engineer who designs a good reservoir, the city that plans its supply: they deserve credit for their stewardship. None of them has ever made it rain.

Does Allah point to the rain because He wants our admiration? He is free of need, and our thanks add nothing to Him. The sources read these ayat as evidence of power and as reminders of favour. The reminder protects us from the rich man's quiet mistake: thinking the green is ours because we paid the tankers.

Next time it rains, stand at a window for a moment. Watch the water come down on everyone's gardens at once, the rich and the poor, and remember who sent it.

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.