His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And He is the One who sent the winds as good news before His mercy, and We sent down from the sky pure water. To give life thereby to a dead land and to give it to drink from what We created of livestock and many people." "And We certainly varied it among them that they might be reminded, but most of the people refused except for disbelief." "And if We had willed, We could have sent in every city a warner." "So do not obey the disbelievers and strive against them with it a great striving."

A group read: "the winds," and a group read: "the wind" in the generic sense, so it is in the meaning of the winds. We have attributed the reading in Surah Al-A'raf. The reading of the plural has meanings; for when the term "the wind" appears in the Quran in the singular, it is for punishment. And when it is for rain and mercy, it is indeed winds; because the wind of rain branches out, disperses, and comes gently from here and there, and something follows something. And the wind of punishment is a single, harsh wind that does not disperse, but rather comes as a single body. Do you not see that it destroys what it finds and demolishes it? Al-Rummani said: The winds of mercy are gathered because they are three pollinators: the southern, the eastern, and the northern, while the wind of punishment is singled out because it is one, it does not pollinate, and it is the western wind.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: "And it is said" in this regard according to the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, when the wind blows: "O Allah, make it winds and do not make it a wind." The readers differed in "the spreading" in the noon and the ba and other than that, a difference we have mentioned in Surah Al-A'raf, and "spreading" means: dispersed and scattered.

And "the pure" is an intensive form of "pure," and this intensity necessitated that the water from the sky and everything that is from it and by its means be pure and purifying. And He described the land as dead because He made it like the source by which the masculine and feminine are described, and this is permissible regarding "the land" in the meaning of "the town." Talhah ibn Musarif read: "To create thereby a dead land and to give it to drink" with the noon being pronounced, and this is the reading of the majority, and its meaning is: We make it for them to drink. This is the saying of some linguists regarding "to give to drink." They said: And "to give to drink" means for the lip. And the majority said: "to give to drink" and "to give to drink" are one meaning, and in support of this is the verse of Labid:

"He gave drink to my people, the sons of Majd, and gave drink to Numayr and the tribes of Hilal."

And Abu Amr read: "We give it to drink" with the noon being opened, and this is the reading of Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn Abi Abla, and Abu Haywah, and it was narrated from Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him. And "many people" is said to be the plural of "human," and the doubled ya is a substitute for the noon in the singular, as said by Sibawayh. And Al-Mubarrid said: It is the plural of "human being." The analogy would be that it should be "many people," just as they said in "Mahalbi": "Mahalibah." And Al-Tabari narrated from some linguists regarding the plural of "human": "many people" with the noon, like "Sarhan" and "Bustan." And Yahya ibn al-Harith read: "many people" with the lightened ya.

The pronoun in "We have diverted it" is, according to Ibn Abbas and Mujahid, referring to the water sent down from the sky. The meaning is that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, made the sending down of water a reminder by diverting it from some places to others. This occurs every year in the same measure. Ibn Mas'ud said this as well. His statement - on this interpretation -: "But most people refused except for disbelief" means in their saying: by the winds and the stars. This was said by Ikrimah. It is said that "disbelief" is in general because they abandoned the reminder. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: The pronoun in "We have diverted it" refers to the Qur'an, even though it was not previously mentioned due to the clarity of the matter. This is supported by his later statement: "And strive against them with it." On the first interpretation, the pronoun in "with it" refers to the Qur'an in the way we have mentioned. Ibn Zayd said: It refers to Islam. Ikrimah read: "We have diverted it" with a lightening of the letter 'r'. Hamzah, Al-Kisai, and the Kufans read: "so that they may remember" with the 'dh' being silent. The others read: "so that they may reflect" with emphasis on the 'dh' and 'k'. In His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "And if We had willed," the verse is an ellipsis indicated by what we have mentioned. Its meaning is: And if We had willed, We would have singled you out and chosen you, so do not obey the disbelievers.