S10
Birds held in the sky
16:79 and 67:19 ask us to look up: birds hang in the air, wings spread or folded, and "None holds them up except Allah."
أَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ إِلَى ٱلطَّيْرِ مُسَخَّرَٰتٍ فِى جَوِّ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ ۗ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَٰتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ٧٩
Transliteration: alam yaraw ilā l-ṭayri musakharātin fī jawwi l-samāi mā yum'sikuhunna illā l-lahu inna fī dhālika laāyātin liqawmin yu'minūna
Do they not see the birds controlled in the atmosphere of the sky? None holds them up except Allah. Indeed in that are signs for a people who believe.
أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ إِلَى ٱلطَّيْرِ فَوْقَهُمْ صَٰٓفَّٰتٍ وَيَقْبِضْنَ ۚ مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلَّا ٱلرَّحْمَٰنُ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍۭ بَصِيرٌ١٩
Transliteration: awalam yaraw ilā l-ṭayri fawqahum ṣāffātin wayaqbiḍ'na mā yum'sikuhunna illā l-raḥmānu innahu bikulli shayin baṣīrun
Do they not see the birds above them with wings outspread and [sometimes] folded in? None holds them [aloft] except the Most Merciful. Indeed He is, of all things, Seeing.
Translation: Saheeh International
"Do they not see the birds above them with wings outspread and [sometimes] folded in? None holds them [aloft] except the Most Merciful. Indeed He is, of all things, Seeing" (67:19), Meccan. It follows warnings that God could cause the earth to swallow people or send a storm of stones (67:16–17): the same God who could withhold safety holds the birds up.
Key words
Musakhkharāt ("controlled", made subservient). Jaww al-samāʾ ("the atmosphere of the sky"). Ṣāffāt ("outspread") and yaqbiḍna ("folded in"). Mā yumsikuhunna illā Allāh: "none holds them up except Allah". In 67:19 the name used is al-Raḥmān, "the Most Merciful".
Classical tafsir
Ibn Kathir on 16:79. "They are held up only by Him, it is He Who gave them the strength to do that, subjecting the air to carry them and support them."
Ibn Kathir on 67:19. "sometimes they spread their wings out in the wind ( gliding )", and at other times they flap.
Al-Jalālayn on 16:79. "Nothing holds them when they draw in their wings or open them lest they fall except God by His power."
Al-Jalālayn on 67:19. "Nothing sustains them from falling either when they are spreading them or closing them".
Where they agree. Both name the means and credit God for them. Ibn Kathir: God gave the birds "strength" and subjected "the air to carry them". Al-Jalālayn, on the end of 16:79: the signs are "that they have been created in a way that enables them to fly as well as the creation of the air in such a way that it allows for flight and the holding of them up in the air so that they do not fall." For both, the means are part of what God does.
How it works
- "Wings outspread" — gliding. Established A spread wing deflects the air flowing past it downward; by Newton's third law, the air pushes the wing up. The pressure above the wing is also lower than below it. Together these produce lift. Soaring birds use rising columns of warm air (thermals) to gain height without flapping. (No named aerodynamics source was read; this is textbook physics.)
- "Folded in" — flapping and diving. Established Flapping adds forward thrust; folding the wings reduces drag for diving or bounding flight.
- How far the air can carry a bird. Established On 13 October 2022, a bar-tailed godwit fitted with satellite tag 234684, "This five-month-old bird", left Alaska and landed at Ansons Bay in eastern Tasmania after flying "13,560 kilometres (8,435 miles)", in "11 days and one hour without the bird landing once", "without stopping for food or rest". Eric Woehler of BirdLife Tasmania estimated it lost "half or more of its body weight" on the way (Guinness World Records).
Points of awe
Text version
- In October 2022 a satellite-tagged juvenile godwit, about five months old, flew roughly 13,560 km nonstop from Alaska to Tasmania in 11 days and 1 hour, on a route it had never flown.
- Before departure godwits shrink digestive organs and carry fat over half their body weight (BirdLife International).
- Later models put the distance at about 13,391–13,560 km.
- The route and the fat gauge in the drawing are schematic: not a real map, not a measured fat-burning curve. The gauge only shows that the store runs down, not how much is left on arrival; the distance counter assumes a constant speed.
Reflection
Look up, the verses say: "Do they not see the birds above them with wings outspread and [sometimes] folded in?" (67:19). We see birds every day, and we stop seeing them. The Quran asks us to look again at something we take for granted: a living body, heavier than air, held up in the sky.
The commentators did not pretend the air does nothing. Ibn Kathir says God holds the birds up by "subjecting the air to carry them and support them". The physics of lift is part of the sign, not a rival to it. Al-Jalālayn names both the bird's created ability to fly and "the creation of the air in such a way that it allows for flight".
A young godwit that had never crossed an ocean flew from Alaska to Tasmania without landing. It was carried by air it did not make, steered by senses it did not design, and kept alive by fat its body had stored. In 67:19 the name used is al-Raḥmān, the Most Merciful. The verses before it warn that the ground could open and the sky could rain stones. Instead, the birds are held up.
The verse invites a double look: see the means clearly, and then see through them to the mercy that keeps them working.
Questions readers ask next
If air and wings keep birds up, why does the verse say God does?
The commentators did not see these as rivals. Ibn Kathir: God gave them strength and subjected "the air to carry them". The means are how the holding happens.
What do "outspread" and "folded in" mean?
Gliding with wings spread, and flapping or folding them. Ibn Kathir describes both.
How did the godwit know where to go?
The source read does not explain how it navigated, and no study of bird navigation was read.
Why is the name "the Most Merciful" used in 67:19?
The verse follows warnings of what God could send (67:16–17); holding the birds up is presented as mercy rather than punishment.
Sources
- Saheeh International — 16:79, 67:19.
- Ibn Kathir, Tafsir (abridged English), and Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (English), on 16:79, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-79-sora-16.html, and on 67:19, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-19-sora-67.html.
- Guinness World Records, "The record-breaking bird that flew from Alaska to Australia without stopping" (January 2023), https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/1/the-record-breaking-bird-that-flew-from-alaska-to-australia-731576.
- ScienceBlog — juvenile bar-tailed godwit, 13,560 km Alaska–Tasmania
- BirdLife International
- Guinness World Records
- Al-Rāzī and Ibn Kathīr on 16:79 and 67:19