Allah brings up significant issues concerning wind

In the following surahs, Allah brings up significant issues concerning wind:

God refers to the wind as a means of bearing good news:

وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ أَنْ يُرْسِلَ الرِّيَاحَ مُبَشِّرَاتٍ وَلِيُذِيقَكُمْ مِنْ رَحْمَتِهِ وَلِتَجْرِيَ الْفُلْكُ بِأَمْرِهِ وَلِتَبْتَغُوا مِنْ فَضْلِهِ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ[1]

“And one of His signs is that He sends forth the winds bearing good news, and that He may make you taste of His mercy, and that the ships may run by His command, and that you may seek of His grace, and that you may be grateful.”

Thus, God refers to the wind as the carrier of the wind, as the fertilizers of the plants, as a chastisement for the criminals, as a mover of the ships on the oceans. God commands us to praise and glorify Him for this asset of His. One of God’s signs of Grandeur is that He calls the wind as the carrier of good news.

The winds move ahead of the rain, combining the spread portions of the clouds together, carrying it towards the arid lands. Of course, the expression “good news” does not solely refer to this fact since winds always carry numerous good news of all type.

The winds regulate the heat and coldness of the air. They abolish infections in larger areas, purifying the air.

The winds lessen the pressure of the sun’s heat over the leaves and plants and stop sun – burnings.

The winds supply man with the oxygen freed by the leaves of the trees and provide the trees with the carbonic acid produced by man exhale.

The winds inseminate many plants, connecting their male and female seeds.

The winds move the wind - mills and help the farmers in harvesting.

The winds take the seeds from one place and scatter them all over the land like a kind farmer.

The winds move the sailing boats carrying many voyagers and their luggage to different locations. The winds may facilitate the easy movement of ships even if they are run mechanically.

Thus, the winds convey good news of all sorts. And we read at the end of the above verse: “He may make you taste of His mercy and that the ships may run by His command, and that you may seek of His grace, and that you may be grateful.”

Thus, the winds are a means for producing ample assets in the areas of agriculture and raising cattle. The winds also help transportation and facilitate the trade. The first concept is relayed through the expression وَلِيُذِيقَكُمْ مِنْ رَحْمَتِهِ “May make you taste of His mercy” the second concept is conveyed by وَلِتَجْرِيَ الْفُلْكُ بِأَمْرِهِ “The ships may run by His command” and the third concept is expressed through the expression وَلِتَبْتَغُوا مِنْ فَضْلِهِ “You may be grateful to Him.”

It is interesting to observe that all these assets and blessings are due to the movement in the air particles surrounding the earth.

Since we usually do not appreciate the existence of a blessing before we are deprived of it, we do not know what calamities might fall on man in the absence of winds.

The lack of movement in the air caused by the wind will convert a garden into a prison. If a breeze is blown across a prison cell, it changes the prison atmosphere drastically. In fact, one of the tortures carried out at the prisons is to deprive the inmates of fresh air.

Even in the oceans, the life of the sea – animals will be jeopardized if the wind stopped and if the waves remained silent. In that case the sea will change into a quagmire and a stinking ditch. Fakhur Razi, in interpreting the expression وَلِيُذِيقَكُمْ مِنْ رَحْمَتِهِ “He may make you taste of His mercy,” writes: the word “taste” is not usually used for “things”; therefore by this expression the worldly assets are not soly referred to; rather, God’s special favors and blessings are felt in the Hereafter.

It is said that there is a location that is entirely covered with rocks and where there is no soil. What happens to the people living there? In the past when trade was not flourishing, how did this people live?

But, God has solved this problem delicately: when the faming time is close, the wind blows and it brings soil and scatters it on these rocks as a gift for people. This soil is deep enough to be used for forming.

Then, people start throwing the seeds and make the soil ready for cultivation. At the time of harvest, people gather their produce. When the cultivation is over, the wind returns, sweeping away the soil.

This cycle is repeated every year. This has been going on for centuries. In this regard history is silent: no one knows when this process originally started.

This action does not occur accidentally since it happens every year. The wind, too, does not have the intelligence to select this location in one section of a country. Neither does it know of the harvest time.

The issue becomes comprehensible if we assume that the wind has got a Sender, Who is Affectionate, All Knowing, Powerful and Generous.

The wind has a tremendous effect on the plants and animals. It has a definite course of action: it blows in accordance with certain planning.

The wind is the source of rain: if the wind did not exist, there would be no rain. The natural scientists tell us:

The clouds are electrical in nature. The electrical beings attract each other if they are of the same charge and will repel each other if they are of different nature. So two wires with positive charge will repel each other, but two wires with different charges (one positive and the other negative) will attract each other.

One of the features of the wind is to bring forth harmony between two opposing elements. The result of this co-ordination is the production of rain. Thus the wind is the only effective agent in the marriage between two electrical elements, whose child is the rain.

If the Monsoons did not blow in the hot climates, life would become intolerable in those regions.

The wind makes life tolerable for man in hot climate. One of these regions is India where the wind is of tremendous effect.

The winds that blow over the seas and the earth make life easy in the shore of the oceans.

The hot winds that accompany famous streams, like the Gulf stream which blows along the shores of England and the Gulf Verd which blows along the shores of Japan, reduce the amount of coldness.

Every body knows of the severity of the climate below the Equator. But the cold weather, blowing from both the North Pole and South Pole, make life possible in these areas.

The wind controls the amount of raining in different regions. In Indonesia, God has put the raining season in the summer, but Lebanon, receives lots of rain in winter.

In some regions, one of which Darjiling in India, it rains the whole year. The amount of the fall of rain in Darjiling is eleven meters a year.

The difference in the timing of the rain causes man to have access to all sorts of produce, fruits and plants all the year. Unfortunately, man is not fully aware of God’s blessings.

Does the wind carry out all these effective functions on its own, or is it carrying out God’s orders? The wind lacks the intelligence; therefore, it has been given the mission to carry out what it is ordered.[2]

وَهُوَ الَّذِي يُرْسِلُ الرِّيَاحَ بُشْرًا بَيْنَ يَدَيْ رَحْمَتِهِ  [3]

 “And He it is Who sends forth the winds bearing good news.”

وَأَرْسَلْنَا الرِّيَاحَ لَوَاقِحَ  [4]

 “And We send the winds fertilizing”

... وَمَنْ يُرْسِلُ الرِّيَاحَ بُشْرًا بَيْنَ يَدَيْ رَحْمَتِهِ ءإِلَهٌ مَعَ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى اللَّهُ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ  [5]

“….And who sends the winds as good news before His mercy. Is there a god with Allah? Exalted be Allah above what they associate with Him.”

اللَّهُ الَّذِي يُرْسِلُ الرِّيَاحَ فَتُثِيرُ سَحَابًا فَيَبْسُطُهُ فِي السَّمَاءِ كَيْفَ يَشَاءُ ... [6]

“Allah is He Who sends forth the winds so they raise a cloud, then He spreads it forth in the sky as He pleases.”

Concerning the rain, the clouds, the hail, the thunder and the lightning, and the thunderbolt and the wind, there are detailed narrations recorded in the section of “the sky and the universe” in Biharul Anwar, in volumes 58 and 59. Some of these narrations deal with the same scientific issues that we presented in the above pages. Other sections deal with spiritual topics. I do not think it feasible to repeat them here. However, those interested to follow the topic could refer to those two volumes.