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Surah 77 · Makkah · 50 āyāt
Phase 02 · Going public — and the persecution(c. 10–8 BH) — view in timelineAl-MursalātThose Sent Forth
المرسلات
An early Makkan surah, close in period and theme to Sūrat al-Qiyāmah, that opens with a chain of five oaths — most likely by the winds in their successive stages — to affirm that the Day promised to humanity will surely come. It then moves through a single, hammering refrain repeated ten times, 'Woe, that Day, to the deniers!', each time following a fresh proof: the ruin of earlier peoples, the design of the human body, the shaping of the earth, the terror of the Fire, and finally the shaded gardens of the God-conscious. It closes with a question that leaves no reply: 'Then in what statement after this [Qur'an] will they believe?'
Why it was revealed
The Prophet ﷺ was with his Companions in a cave at Minā — most likely during one of the pilgrimage seasons before the Hijrah — when this surah was sent down verse by verse.
Drawn fromalso narrated in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitāb al-Salām; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, introduction to Sūrat al-Mursalāt, citing Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī; Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4930–4931; Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4930–4931 (Kitāb al-Tafsīr); Ibn Kathīr, introduction to Sūrat al-Mursalāt
ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd رضي الله عنه said: 'While we were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in a cave at Minā, Wal-Mursalāt was revealed to him, and he recited it, and I took it directly from his mouth while it was still fresh [from Jibrīl's tongue]. Suddenly a snake darted out at us; the Prophet ﷺ said: Kill it — but it escaped before we could. The Prophet ﷺ said: It has been spared your harm, as you have been spared its harm.'
Cited toṢaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4930–4931 (Kitāb al-Tafsīr); also narrated in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitāb al-Salām
In the Prophet's ﷺ life
Revelation in the cave at Minā
Ibn Masʿūd received the surah directly from the Prophet's ﷺ recitation as it was being revealed, verse by verse, while they sheltered together in a cave.
Recalled in āyah 1
وَٱلْمُرْسَلَـٰتِ عُرْفًا
By those [winds] sent forth in gusts
Cited toṢaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4930–4931
- Madd — 2 vowels
- Madd — 2, 4 or 6 vowels
- Madd — 6 vowels (lāzim)
- Madd — 4 or 5 vowels (wājib)
- Ghunnah — 2 vowels
- Qalqalah
- Ikhfāʾ
- Ikhfāʾ shafawī
- Idghām shafawī
- Idghām with ghunnah
- Idghām without ghunnah
- Idghām mutajānisayn
- Idghām mutaqāribayn
- Iqlāb
- Hamzat al-waṣl
- Lām shamsiyyah
- Silent letter
Tajwīd markup and colour convention: Quran.com API (v4) — text_uthmani_tajweed. Recitation audio: Quran.com / Quran Foundation Audio API (v4).
The oaths: forces sent one after another
Five oaths, most likely describing the winds in their successive stages — sent gently, then blowing violently, scattering clouds, separating truth from falsehood, and casting down the reminder — all leading to one conclusion: what you are promised will certainly happen.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
وَٱلْمُرْسَلَـٰتِ عُرْفًا
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By those [winds] sent forth in gusts
إِنَّمَا تُوعَدُونَ لَوَٰقِعٌ
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Indeed, what you are promised is to occur.
From the tafsīr
Ibn Masʿūd, Abū Ṣāliḥ and others said al-mursalāt refers to the winds sent forth in succession; others held that some of the oaths (particularly al-mulqiyāt dhikran) refer to the angels who bring down revelation to the messengers. Either way, the oaths converge on the same conclusion: the promised event will occur.
Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
ʿurfan describes the winds sent one following another, like a horse's mane rising in succession; ʿaṣfan is their violent blowing; nashran is their spreading and dispersing of the clouds.
Cited toAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
Key takeaways
- Allah swears by ordinary, observable forces of nature to prove an extraordinary, unseen event.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Scholars differed respectfully on whether the oaths are winds or angels — both readings serve the same argument.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- The conclusion of an oath ('what you are promised will surely occur') is stated before any description of that promise — certainty comes first, detail comes after.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Reflect
What repeated, ordinary pattern in your own life could remind you that Allah's promises unfold in stages too?
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Question 1 of 2
What single claim does the oath sequence support?
Question 2 of 2
What did Ibn Masʿūd say al-mursalāt (āyah 1) refers to?
The Day of Decision and the first refrain
When stars are extinguished, the sky is split open, mountains are blown away like dust, and the messengers are given their appointed time — that is the Day of Decision (yawm al-faṣl). The refrain begins: 'Woe, that Day, to the deniers!' — first tied to the destruction of earlier nations who denied their messengers.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān; Ibn Kathīr
وَيْلٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ لِّلْمُكَذِّبِينَ
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Woe, that Day, to the deniers.
أَلَمْ نُهْلِكِ ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ
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Did We not destroy the former peoples?
From the tafsīr
Ṭumisat (stars extinguished) means their light is put out; furijat (the sky is opened) means it is split apart; nusifat (mountains are blown away) means they are scattered like dust carried by the wind.
Cited toIbn Kathīr
'Alam nuhlik al-awwalīn' (āyah 16) recalls how Allah destroyed the earlier peoples who denied their messengers, then goes on to destroy every later people who does likewise — a pattern, not a one-time event.
Cited toAl-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān
Key takeaways
- The cosmic order — stars, sky, mountains — is described as fully within Allah's control and fully reversible.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān; Ibn Kathīr
- The refrain 'woe to the deniers' is repeated exactly ten times in this surah, each time following a different proof.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān; Ibn Kathīr
- Denial of messengers has a documented historical pattern, not just a future consequence.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān; Ibn Kathīr
Reflect
What would change in how you read warnings if you accepted that a fixed 'time' has already been appointed for them, as it has for the messengers in āyah 11?
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0 / 2 correctAnswer from memory before scrolling back — retrieval is what makes it stick.
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Question 1 of 2
What is the total count of the surah's refrain?
Question 2 of 2
What does 'the Day of Decision' (yawm al-faṣl) refer to?
Proofs from your own body and the earth beneath you
Three proofs of resurrection drawn from what people already witness: their own creation from a despised fluid placed in a secure place for a known term, the earth made to gather the living and the dead, and firm mountains with fresh water given to drink.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī; Ibn Kathīr
أَلَمْ نَخْلُقكُّم مِّن مَّآءٍ مَّهِينٍ
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Did We not create you from a liquid disdained?
أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ ٱلْأَرْضَ كِفَاتًا
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Have We not made the earth a container
وَجَعَلْنَا فِيهَا رَوَٰسِىَ شَـٰمِخَـٰتٍ وَأَسْقَيْنَـٰكُم مَّآءً فُرَاتًا
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And We placed therein lofty, firmly set mountains and have given you to drink sweet water.
From the tafsīr
'Māʾin mahīn' (a despised fluid) — the humble origin of every human being, placed by Allah's decree in a firm resting-place until a known term. The One who arranged this stage by stage can certainly restore what has decayed.
Cited toAl-Saʿdī
Kifātan (āyah 25) means the earth gathers in the living upon its surface and the dead within it — a single word covering both cradle and grave.
Cited toIbn Kathīr
Key takeaways
- The argument for resurrection does not appeal to the unseen alone — it points at the body reading these verses.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī; Ibn Kathīr
- 'Fanniʿma al-qādirūn' (āyah 23) — 'how excellent a determiner' — ties precise biological staging to divine power, not chance.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī; Ibn Kathīr
- The earth as kifāt (a gathering place) reframes daily ground underfoot as evidence, not scenery.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī; Ibn Kathīr
Reflect
Which single stage of your own biological formation — from fluid to firm resting-place to a known term — most convinces you that resurrection is not harder than your first creation?
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Question 1 of 2
What does āyah 25 mean by calling the earth kifātan?
Question 2 of 2
What does 'māʾin mahīn' (āyah 20) describe?
The scene of the Fire for the deniers
Deniers are told: 'Proceed to what you used to deny.' They are driven to a shadow of smoke with three columns — giving no coolness and no shelter from the flame — that hurls sparks like fortresses, like yellow camels. On that Day they cannot speak, and no permission is given for them to make excuses.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr
ٱنطَلِقُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰ ظِلٍّ ذِى ثَلَـٰثِ شُعَبٍ
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Proceed to a shadow [of smoke] having three columns.
From the tafsīr
'Ẓillin dhī thalāthi shuʿab' — a shadow of smoke that branches into three columns before closing in on them — described as neither cool nor sheltering, unlike any shade they knew in this world.
Cited toIbn Kathīr
'Jimālatun ṣufr' — sparks the size of fortresses compared to yellow camels — a comparison drawn from what the first Arab audience knew well, to make the terror concrete rather than abstract.
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
Key takeaways
- The command 'proceed to what you used to deny' turns disbelief itself into the sentence being carried out.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr
- 'No permission is given for them to make excuses' (āyah 36) closes the door that was open throughout this worldly life.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr
- Vivid, concrete imagery (fortress-sized sparks, yellow camels) is chosen deliberately to make an unseen reality vivid to a seeing audience.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr
Reflect
What excuses do you currently rely on that āyah 36 warns will not be accepted on that Day?
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Question 1 of 2
What does the three-columned shadow of āyah 30 fail to provide?
Question 2 of 2
What does āyah 36 say about excuses on that Day?
The Gardens of the God-conscious, and the closing question
In sharp contrast, the muttaqīn are among shades, springs and fruit of their choosing, told 'eat and drink in satisfaction for what you used to do.' The deniers are told to 'eat and enjoy yourselves a little; indeed you are criminals,' refusing even to bow when told. The surah ends with a question with no honest answer: 'Then in what statement after this will they believe?'
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī; Ibn Kathīr
إِنَّ ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ فِى ظِلَـٰلٍ وَعُيُونٍ
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Indeed, the righteous will be among shades and springs
كُلُوا۟ وَٱشْرَبُوا۟ هَنِيٓـًٔۢا بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ
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[Being told], "Eat and drink in satisfaction for what you used to do."
فَبِأَىِّ حَدِيثٍۭ بَعْدَهُۥ يُؤْمِنُونَ
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Then in what statement after it [i.e., the Qur’ān] will they believe?
From the tafsīr
'Kulū wa-shrabū hanīʾan bi-mā kuntum taʿmalūn' (āyah 43) mirrors, in reward, the same 'eat and enjoy' addressed mockingly to the deniers in āyah 46 — the same words, opposite outcomes.
Cited toIbn Kathīr
The closing question, 'fa-bi-ayyi ḥadīthin baʿdahu yuʾminūn' (āyah 50), means: if this Qur'an — with its proofs, warnings and mercy — does not move a person to believe, no other speech ever will.
Cited toAl-Saʿdī
Key takeaways
- Reward is described as satisfaction earned by deeds, not luck or lineage — 'bi-mā kuntum taʿmalūn'.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī; Ibn Kathīr
- Refusing to bow (āyah 48) when told is named as a defining trait of the deniers, tying belief to visible submission, not only inward conviction.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī; Ibn Kathīr
- The final question makes the Qur'an itself the last argument — after it, there is no further proof left to offer.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī; Ibn Kathīr
Reflect
If the Qur'an is, as āyah 50 implies, the final word that can move a heart, what is still standing between you and fuller submission to it?
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Question 1 of 2
What is the stated reason for their satisfaction in āyah 43?
Question 2 of 2
Why does the surah end with a question rather than a statement?
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Roots from this surah
Learn the three-letter root and you unlock every word built from it — across the whole Qur'an, not just this surah.
ر س ل
āyāt 1to send forth — a message, a wind, or a messenger
- مُرْسَلَاتthose sent forth
- رَسُولmessenger
- رِسَالَةmessage
و ق ع
āyāt 7to fall, to occur, to befall
- وَاقِعoccurring, coming to pass
- وَقْعَةa befalling event
- مَوْقِعlocation, point of occurrence
ك ذ ب
āyāt 15, 19, 24, 28, 34, 37, 40, 45, 47, 49to lie, to deny the truth
- مُكَذِّبone who denies
- كَذِبa lie
- تَكْذِيبact of denying
ه ل ك
āyāt 16to perish, to be destroyed
- هَلَاكdestruction, ruin
- أَهْلَكَhe destroyed
- مُهْلِكone who destroys
ك ف ت
āyāt 25to gather in, to contain and hold
- كِفَاتa gathering place, container
- كَفَتَhe gathered in, drew together
ظ ل ل
āyāt 30, 31, 41to shade, to give or withhold cover from the sun or fire
- ظِلّshade, shadow
- ظَلِيلshady, cool-shaded
- ظِلَالshades (plural)
ط ل ق
āyāt 29, 30to release, to set off, to proceed
- ٱنطَلِقُواproceed! set off!
- طَلَاقrelease from marriage
- إِطْلَاقsetting free, launching
أ م ن
āyāt 50to be secure, to trust, to believe
- يُؤْمِنُونَthey believe
- إِيمَانfaith
- أَمَانsafety, security
Carry this with you
- Certainty about the Hereafter is argued from ordinary, observable patterns — winds, water, mountains, your own body.
- The ten-fold refrain 'Woe, that Day, to the deniers!' is not decoration; each time it follows a distinct, independent proof.
- Destruction of earlier deniers is described as a repeating pattern, not a closed chapter of history.
- Reward and punishment are described in the very same vocabulary — 'eat and drink' — to show that the outcome, not the offer, is what differs.
- No excuse will be accepted on the Day of Decision; the time to explain oneself is now, not then.
- The earth beneath your feet is named a kifāt — a gathering place for the living and the dead — turning daily ground into a standing sign.
- The muttaqīn are rewarded precisely 'for what you used to do' — deeds, not lineage or luck, are the measure.
- The Qur'an itself is presented as the final argument: if it does not move a heart, no later speech will.
Where this surah connects
Cross-surah threads
Parts of the Qurʾān explain other parts. Each thread below opens the same subject as it is argued across every other surah you have studied, in revelation order.
All threads →Sources behind Sūrah Al-Mursalāt
Every line of context, tafsīr and takeaway on this page traces back to one of these references. Ḥadīth numbers open on sunnah.com and āyah references open on quran.com, so you can check the claim rather than take it on trust. The Arabic text itself is fetched live from a verified public corpus.
Ḥadīth4
Tafsīr17
- Al-Qurṭubī on 77:36
- Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
- Al-Saʿdī
- Al-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān
- Al-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān on 77:20
- Al-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān on 77:50
- Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
- Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān on 77:7
- Ibn Kathīr
- Ibn Kathīr on 77:1
- Ibn Kathīr on 77:13–14
- Ibn Kathīr on 77:25
- Ibn Kathīr on 77:30–31
- Ibn Kathīr on 77:43
- Ibn Kathīr, introduction to Sūrat al-Mursalāt
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, Sūrat al-Mursalāt (structural note repeated throughout)
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Al-Mursalāt · The Gardens of the God-conscious, and the closing question
Why does the surah end with a question rather than a statement?
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