✦ AT A GLANCE ✦
الذاريات
Adh-Dhariyat
✦ Why this name
The Scattering Winds — adh-Dhariyat, sworn by in the opening verse.
✦ When it came
Meccan. A short surah on provision and purpose, addressed to people anxious about both.
✦ The story
It swears by winds, clouds, and ships, and then says something that reorders a person's worries: *"And in the heaven is your provision and whatever you are promised."* Your sustenance is not in the hands of the people you are afraid of.
Then Ibrahim عليه السلام serving a roasted calf to guests who do not eat, and his wife striking her face and laughing at the news of a child in old age.
And the sentence the whole surah exists for: *"I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me."* Followed immediately by a clarification that removes any transactional reading: *"I do not want from them any provision, nor do I want them to feed Me."*
✦ How it unfolds
- AYAH 1-23
Oaths and the promise
Winds and ships sworn by, and provision located in the heaven, not in people's hands.
- AYAH 24-37
Guests who do not eat
Ibrahim's hospitality, the news of a son, and the errand the guests were actually on.