المرسلات
Al Mursalat
Verses
50
Revelation
Makki
Period
Makkan
Surah No.
77 / 114
Al-Mursalat opens with a series of five oaths by the emissaries – winds, angels, or surahs – that perform sequential cosmic functions: blowing in succession, spreading, separating, delivering reminders, and establishing divine argument. The surah then pronounces woe upon the deniers in ten powerful refrains (waylun yawma'idhin lil-mukadhdhibin), interweaving cosmic signs of creation with warnings about the Day of Judgement. The bounties of creation and the terrors of the Day are set side by side as an unanswerable argument for accountability.
أسباب النزول
Revealed in the Makkan period. The companions reported that this was one of the last surahs the Prophet recited in an evening prayer before the assassination attempt in Mina, and that they could tell from its content the nature of what was being revealed. The repeated refrain "woe that day to the deniers" was designed to pierce through the Makkan culture of comfortable denial.
“By those sent forth in succession. And those who blow violently. And those who spread widely. And those who differentiate clearly. And those who deliver a reminder.”
The five-fold oath opening – whether interpreted as winds, angels, or Quranic verses, each image builds a sense of cumulative, purposeful divine activity underlying all of creation and revelation.
“Eat and enjoy yourselves a little – indeed, you are criminals.”
The bitter irony of divine address – a brief concession to temporary pleasure frames the gravity of criminal rejection of truth, the enjoyment being finite against an infinite reckoning.