S17
Clouds and winds
24:43 asks us to watch a storm being built: God "drives clouds", brings them together, piles them into a mass, and rain comes "from within it".
أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُزْجِى سَحَابًا ثُمَّ يُؤَلِّفُ بَيْنَهُۥ ثُمَّ يَجْعَلُهُۥ رُكَامًا فَتَرَى ٱلْوَدْقَ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ خِلَٰلِهِۦ وَيُنَزِّلُ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مِن جِبَالٍ فِيهَا مِنۢ بَرَدٍ فَيُصِيبُ بِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ وَيَصْرِفُهُۥ عَن مَّن يَشَآءُ ۖ يَكَادُ سَنَا بَرْقِهِۦ يَذْهَبُ بِٱلْأَبْصَٰرِ٤٣
Transliteration: alam tara anna l-laha yuz'jī saḥāban thumma yu-allifu baynahu thumma yajʿaluhu rukāman fatarā l-wadqa yakhruju min khilālihi wayunazzilu mina l-samāi min jibālin fīhā min baradin fayuṣību bihi man yashāu wayaṣrifuhu ʿan man yashāu yakādu sanā barqihi yadhhabu bil-abṣāri
Do you not see that Allah drives clouds? Then He brings them together, then He makes them into a mass, and you see the rain emerge from within it. And He sends down from the sky, mountains [of clouds] within which is hail, and He strikes with it whom He wills and averts it from whom He wills. The flash of its lightening almost takes away the eyesight.
ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِى يُرْسِلُ ٱلرِّيَٰحَ فَتُثِيرُ سَحَابًا فَيَبْسُطُهُۥ فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ كَيْفَ يَشَآءُ وَيَجْعَلُهُۥ كِسَفًا فَتَرَى ٱلْوَدْقَ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ خِلَٰلِهِۦ ۖ فَإِذَآ أَصَابَ بِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِۦٓ إِذَا هُمْ يَسْتَبْشِرُونَ٤٨
Transliteration: al-lahu alladhī yur'silu l-riyāḥa fatuthīru saḥāban fayabsuṭuhu fī l-samāi kayfa yashāu wayajʿaluhu kisafan fatarā l-wadqa yakhruju min khilālihi fa-idhā aṣāba bihi man yashāu min ʿibādihi idhā hum yastabshirūna
It is Allah who sends the winds, and they stir the clouds and spread them in the sky however He wills, and He makes them fragments so you see the rain emerge from within them. And when He causes it to fall upon whom He wills of His servants, immediately they rejoice
وَأَرْسَلْنَا ٱلرِّيَٰحَ لَوَٰقِحَ فَأَنزَلْنَا مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءً فَأَسْقَيْنَٰكُمُوهُ وَمَآ أَنتُمْ لَهُۥ بِخَٰزِنِينَ٢٢
Transliteration: wa-arsalnā l-riyāḥa lawāqiḥa fa-anzalnā mina l-samāi māan fa-asqaynākumūhu wamā antum lahu bikhāzinīna
And We have sent the fertilizing winds and sent down water from the sky and given you drink from it. And you are not its retainers.
Translation: Saheeh International
"It is Allah who sends the winds, and they stir the clouds and spread them in the sky however He wills, and He makes them fragments so you see the rain emerge from within them" (30:48), Meccan.
"And We have sent the fertilizing winds and sent down water from the sky and given you drink from it. And you are not its retainers" (15:22), Meccan.
Key words
Yuzjī ("drives"): pushes gently along. Yuʾallifu baynahu ("brings them together"). Rukām ("a mass"): piled up. Al-wadq ("the rain"). Lawāqiḥ (15:22, "fertilizing"): from laqqaḥa, to fertilise or pollinate.
See also: 2:164 , 7:57
Classical tafsir
Ibn Kathir on 24:43. God "drives the clouds from the beginning, when they are formed and are still weak"; "He piles them up on top of one another"; the rain comes "from the gaps between them". On the "mountains" with hail, he gives two views: one "that there are mountains of hail in the sky from which Allah sends down ice", and another that "mountains" is a metaphor for the clouds. On the lightning: "the brightness of its lightning almost takes away their sight if the eyes follow it and try to look at it."
Al-Jalālayn on 24:43. God "piles them up some on top of others"; "The brilliance of its lightning its flashing would almost take away the eyes that look at it".
Ibn Kathir on 15:22. He gives two readings of "fertilizing". Ibn Masʿud: "The wind is sent bearing water from the sky, then it fertilizes the clouds until rain begins to generously fall". He then quotes ʿUbayd bin ʿUmayr al-Laythi: "Allah sends the fertilizing wind which pollinates the trees." His own gloss joins both: "fertilizing the clouds so that they give rain, and fertilizing the trees so that they open their leaves and blossoms."
Al-Jalālayn on 15:22. "And We send the winds as fertilisers to fertilise the clouds".
Where they differ. On 15:22, Ibn Kathir keeps both readings, clouds and trees; al-Jalālayn names only clouds. On 24:43, Ibn Kathir leaves open whether the "mountains" are literal mountains of hail or a picture of towering clouds.
How it works
A 1 km³ cumulus holds ≈ 500 tonnes of water (0.5 g per m³, USGS)
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Text version
The verse says clouds are driven, brought together, made into a mass, and rain emerges from within (24:43). A cumulus cloud holds about 0.5 grams of water per cubic metre, so a cloud of 1 km³ carries about 500 tonnes of water. It floats because moist air is less dense than dry air (USGS).
Each point is tied to "brings them together… a mass… rain… hail".
- How heavy a cloud is. Established USGS, citing one published estimate, gives the water in a cumulus cloud as "about 0.5 gram per cubic meter". A cloud of 1 km³ — "1 billion cubic meters" — therefore holds about "500,000 kilograms or 1.1 million pounds (about 551 tons)" (US short tons; about 500 metric tonnes).
- Why it stays up. Established "clouds float on air because the moist air in clouds is less dense than dry air" (USGS).
- Piling up, rain and hail. Established When clouds merge and grow upward into towering storm clouds, strong rising air carries droplets high enough to freeze; hailstones grow as they are carried up and down. (Standard meteorology; no named source on hail formation was read.)
- Wind and pollination. Established Many plants, including grasses and cereals, are pollinated by wind. (No named source on wind pollination was read.)
Points of awe
Ibn Kathir reads "fertilizing winds" both as winds that load the clouds with rain (with Ibn Masʿud) and as winds that make trees blossom (with ʿUbayd bin ʿUmayr).
Reflection
"Do you not see that Allah drives clouds?" (24:43). The verse is a question. It asks us to look up and watch, as if for the first time, something we see every week. Thin clouds drift; they gather; they pile into a dark mass; and then rain comes "from within it".
Ibn Kathir notices how the verse begins: with clouds "still weak". A storm starts as almost nothing. Then come the lightning flashes that "almost take away" the sight of anyone who stares at them. The commentators did not need a weather satellite to feel the power in this.
15:22 adds a line that should stop us: "And you are not its retainers." We do not store the rain. We cannot keep it in the sky, or call it down when we want. In USGS's example, half a million kilograms of water float above us in one cloud, and none of it is ours to command.
The winds that carry it are called "fertilizing": they load the clouds and carry pollen to the trees. One movement of air feeds both sky and field. The verse turns weather into a lesson in dependence, and invites the response the Quran asks for elsewhere: gratitude for water we did not make.
Questions readers ask next
What are the "mountains" of hail?
Ibn Kathir gives two views: literal "mountains of hail in the sky", or a metaphor for towering clouds.
What does "fertilizing winds" mean?
Winds that load the clouds with rain (Ibn Masʿud, via Ibn Kathir) and that make trees blossom (ʿUbayd bin ʿUmayr, via Ibn Kathir; Ibn Kathir's own gloss holds both).
How can a cloud weigh 500 tonnes and still float?
USGS's answer: "the moist air in clouds is less dense than dry air." (Why the droplets stay up in more detail was not covered by the source read.)
What does "you are not its retainers" mean?
That people do not store or control the rain; it is given.
Sources
- Saheeh International, via the Tanzil text — 24:43, 30:48, 15:22.
- Ibn Kathir, Tafsir (abridged English), and Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (English), on 24:43, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-43-sora-24.html, and on 15:22, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-22-sora-15.html.
- USGS Water Science School, "How much does a cloud weigh?", https://www.usgs.gov/water-science-school/science/how-much-does-a-cloud-weigh.
- USGS Water Science School, "How much does a cloud weigh?" (via Library of Congress)
- EarthDate (University of Texas), "Puffy Clouds Weigh In"
- Ibn Kathīr on 24:43 and 15:22; al-Qurṭubī on 15:22