Tafseer of The Emissaries · Al-Mursalaat · 77:1
By those [winds] sent forth in gusts
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 interpreters (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed over the meaning of the word of Allah: وَالْمُرْسَلاتِ عُرْفًا ("By those that are sent forth, following one another"). Some of them said: Its meaning is: by the winds that are sent forth, the one following the other. They said: and "al-mursalāt" are the winds.
* Mention of those who said that:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of al-Masʿūdī, on the authority of Salama ibn Kuhayl, on the authority of Abū l-ʿUbaydayn, that he asked Ibn Masʿūd and said: وَالْمُرْسَلاتِ عُرْفًا , he said: The wind.
Khallād ibn Aslam related to us, saying: Al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl related to us, saying: Al-Masʿūdī informed us, on the authority of Salama ibn Kuhayl, on the authority of Abū l-ʿUbaydayn, that he asked ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd — and he mentioned something similar.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Salama ibn Kuhayl, on the authority of Muslim, on the authority of Abū l-ʿUbaydayn, he said: I asked ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd — and he mentioned something similar.
Mohammed ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: My father related to me, saying: My uncle related to me, saying: My father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: وَالْمُرْسَلاتِ عُرْفًا , he means: the wind.
Mohammed ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: My father related to me, on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of Ismāʿīl al-Suddī, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, the companion of al-Kalbī, concerning His word: وَالْمُرْسَلاتِ عُرْفًا , he said: They are the winds.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: وَالْمُرْسَلاتِ عُرْفًا , he said: The wind.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
He said: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Salama ibn Kuhayl, on the authority of Muslim al-Baṭīn, on the authority of Abū l-ʿUbaydayn, he said: I asked ʿAbd Allāh about المُرْسَلاتِ عُرْفا , he said: The wind.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: وَالْمُرْسَلاتِ عُرْفًا , he said: It is the wind.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, the same.
Others said: No, its meaning is: by the angels that are sent forth with that which is known (al-ʿurf).
* Mention of those who said that:
Abū l-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Muslim, he said: Masrūq used to say concerning "al-mursalāt": They are the angels.
Isrāʾīl ibn Abī Isrāʾīl related to us, saying: Al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl informed us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Sulaymān, he said: I heard Abū l-Ḍuḥā, on the authority of Masrūq, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh concerning His word: وَالْمُرْسَلاتِ عُرْفًا , he said: The angels.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Jābir ibn Nūḥ and Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ concerning His word: وَالْمُرْسَلاتِ عُرْفًا , he said: They are those that are sent, sent forth with that which is known.
ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bayān al-Sukkarī related to us, saying: Mohammed ibn Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl, he said: I asked Abū Ṣāliḥ concerning His word: وَالْمُرْسَلاتِ عُرْفًا , he said: They are those that are sent, sent forth with the good (al-maʿrūf). They said: The interpretation of the statement is therefore: by the angels that are sent forth with the command and prohibition of Allah, and that is what is known (al-ʿurf).
Some of them said: By His word عُرْفا is meant: successively, like the mane of a horse, as the Arabs said: "The people have come to such-and-such as one mane (ʿurf wāḥid)," when they turn toward him and are numerous.
* Mention of those who said that:
It was related to me, on the authority of Dāwūd ibn al-Zibriqān, on the authority of Ṣāliḥ ibn Burayda, concerning His word: عُرْفا , he said: The one follows the other.
And the correct word concerning that, in our view, is to say: Allah, the Exalted — He whose praise is mentioned —, swore by those that are sent forth, following one another. And the angels are sent forth successively, and likewise the winds are sent forth, and there is no indication pointing to the fact that one of the two parties is meant to the exclusion of the other. He — exalted is His praise — by His oath encompassed everything whose characteristic is what He has described; so everyone whose characteristic is thus falls under that oath of His, whether it be an angel, or a wind, or one sent from the children of Adam who has been sent forth.
