Tafseer of The Originator · Faatir · 35:27
Do you not see that Allah sends down rain from the sky, and We produce thereby fruits of varying colors? And in the mountains are tracts, white and red of varying shades and [some] extremely black.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ أَنْزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَخْرَجْنَا بِهِ ثَمَرَاتٍ مُخْتَلِفًا أَلْوَانُهَا وَمِنَ الْجِبَالِ جُدَدٌ بِيضٌ وَحُمْرٌ مُخْتَلِفٌ أَلْوَانُهَا وَغَرَابِيبُ سُودٌ (35:27) (Have you not seen that Allah has sent down water from the sky? With it We bring forth fruits of different colours. And in the mountains there are streaks, white and red, of different colours, and pitch-black ones.)
The Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says: Have you not seen, O Muḥammad, that Allah has sent down from the sky a rain shower, and that with it We brought forth fruits of different colours? He means: With it We gave water to the trees in the earth, and with it We brought forth from those trees fruits of different colours; some red, some black and yellow, and yet other colours. وَمِنَ الْجِبَالِ جُدَدٌ بِيضٌ وَحُمْرٌ (And in the mountains there are streaks, white and red). The Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says: And in the mountains there are tracks—these are the "judad," which are the streaks found in the mountains, white, red and black, like roads; their singular is "judda." To this belongs the verse of Imruʾ al-Qays in the description of a wild ass:
"It was as if its back and the streak of its back were quivers over which the gleam of gold flows." (1)
By "judda" he means: the black streak that is on the back of the ass.
And His saying مُخْتَلِفٌ أَلْوَانُهَا (of different colours) means: the colours of the streaks differ. وَغَرَابِيبُ سُودٌ (and pitch-black ones): this belongs to the preposed which has the meaning of the postposed, for the Arabs say: "it is black, gharīb (pitch-black)," when they describe it with intense blackness; and here the blackness (sūd) has been made into a description of the "gharābīb."
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Footnotes:
(1) The verse is by Imruʾ al-Qays (Mukhtār al-shiʿr al-jāhilī, with commentary by Muṣṭafā al-Saqqā, edition of Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī and Sons, p. 127), where it reads "ẓahruhu" (its back) instead of "matnuhu," and "baynahunna" (between them) instead of "fawqahunna" (above them). Its commentator said: "sarātuhu" means: its back. And "al-judda": the streak that runs in the middle of the back. And "al-kanāʾin": the quivers, of leather or wood. And "al-dalīṣ": the gleam of gold. He compared the streak that is on the back of the ass, in its gleam and colour, with gilded quivers, together with the gleam of its hide and its smoothness. End. The author cited it in connection with the saying of the Exalted: وَمِنَ الْجِبَالِ جُدَدٌ بِيضٌ وَحُمْرٌ (And in the mountains there are streaks, white and red), as proof that the meaning of "judad" is: the streaks found in the mountains: white, red and black, like roads, their singular being "judda," and he quoted the verse of Imruʾ al-Qays according to the author's transmission. Then he said: And "al-judda": the black streak on the back of the ass. And al-Farrāʾ said: one says "adlaṣtu al-shayʾa" and "dalaṣtuhu": when it gleams. Thus everything that gleams, like the mirror, gold and silver, is "dalīṣ."
