Adh-Dhaariyat

About Surah Adh-Dhaariyat

Surah Adh-Dhaariyat is the 51st surah (chapter) of The Glorious Quran. Name of the surah means The Scatterers. It has 60 ayaat (verses) and was revealed in the holy city of Makkah i.e., before Prophet ﷺ migrated to the city of Medina. This surah is spread across 2 juz/paaras. 26th juz contain verses 1-30, 27th juz contain verses 31-60.

Quick Summary

Surah #
51
Meaning
The Scatterers
No. of ayaat
60
Revelation place
makkah Makkah
Revelation order
67
Rukūʿ
3 (Ayaah 23, 46, 60)
Hizb break(s)
1 (Ayaah 30)
Juz / Paara
Juz 26 (Ayaat 1-30), Juz 27 (Ayaat 31-60)
Manzil (⅐ of Quran)
7
Pages ^
520 - 522(Open)
^ Qur'an printed at King Fahd Glorious Quran Printing Complex in Al Madinah Al Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia.

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In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Introduction

Like the previous sûrah, this Meccan sûrah makes the case for the Resurrection, citing some of Allāh's natural signs in the universe to prove His ability to bring the dead back life. Several examples are given of the deniers of judgment who were destroyed, which contrast with the reward of the believers. The Prophet ( ﷺ ) is urged to carry on reminding. Both the end of this sûrah and the beginning of the next pose a warning of the Day of Judgment.

Details from Tafheem-ul-Qurʾān

Name

It is derived from the very first word wadh-dhariyat, which implies that it is a Surah which begins with the word adh-dhariyat.

Period of Revelation

The subject matter and the style clearly show that it was sent down in the period when although the Holy Prophet's invitation was being resisted and opposed with denial and ridicule and false accusations stubbornly, persecution had not yet started. Therefore, this Surah also seems to have been revealed in the same period in which the Surah Qaf was revealed.

Subject Matter and Topics

The Surah mostly deals with the Hereafter, and in the end it presents the invitation to Tauhid. In addition, the people have also been warned that refusal to accept the message of the Prophets and persistence in the concepts and creeds of ignorance have proved to be disastrous for those nations themselves which have adopted this attitude and way of life in the past.

About the Hereafter what this Surah presents in short but pithy sentences is this: The people's different and conflicting beliefs about the end of human life are themselves an express proof that none of these beliefs and creeds is based on knowledge; everyone by himself has formed an ideology on the basis of conjecture and made the same his creed. Someone thought that there would be no life-after-death; someone believed in the life-after-death, but in the form of the transmigration of souls; someone believed in the life hereafter and the meting out of the rewards and punishments but invented different sorts of props and supports to escape retribution. About a question of such vital and fundamental importance a wrong view of which renders man's whole life-work wrong and waste and ruins his future for ever, it would be a disastrous folly to build an ideology only on the basis of speculation and conjecture, without knowledge. It would mean that man should remain involved in a grave misunderstanding, pass his whole life in the heedlessness of error, and after death should suddenly meet with a situation for which he had made no preparation at all. There is only one way of forming the right opinion about such a question, and it is this: Man should seriously ponder over the knowledge about the Hereafter that the Prophet of Allāh is conveying to him from Him, and should study carefully the system of the earth and heavens and his own existence: and should see whether the evidence of that knowledge's being sound and correct is afforded by everything around him or not. In this regard, the arrangement of the wind and rain, the structure of the earth and the creatures found on it, man's own self, the creation of the heavens and of everything in the world in the form of pairs have been presented as evidence of the Hereafter, and instances have been cited from human history to show that the temper of the empire of the Universe requires that the law of retribution must operate here.

After this, giving the invitation to Tauhid briefly, it has been said: "Your Creator has not created you for the service of others but for His own service. He is not like your false gods, which receive sustenance from you and godhead of which cannot function without your help, but He is a God Who is the Sustainer of all, Who does not stand in need of sustenance from anyone and Whose Godhead is functioning by His own power and might.

In this very connection, it has also been stated that whenever the Prophets of Allāh have been opposed and resisted, they have not been opposed and resisted on the basis of any rational ground but on the basis of the same obduracy and stubbornness and false pride that is being shown against the Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him), and there is no other motive for it than rebellion and arrogance. Then the Holy Prophet has been instructed not to bother about the rebels but to go on performing his mission of invitation and admonition, for it is useful and beneficial for the believers although it may not be so for the other people. As for the wicked people who still persist in their rebellion, they should know that their predecessors who followed the same way of life, have already received their shares of the punishment, and these people's share of the punishment has been made ready for them.