Sūrah 77 · Āyāt 1–15

al-Mursalat 1–15 — The oaths and the coming Day of Decision

The sura opens with five oaths (vv.1–6) — by those sent forth, the gales, the scatterers, the separators, and those who cast a Reminder, as excuse or warning — answered in v.7: what you are promised will surely befall. Verses 8–11 then name the cosmic upheavals that time it (stars blotted out, sky cleft, mountains scattered, messengers gathered to witness), and vv.12–15 press the question ‘for what Day?’ to its answer, the Day of Decision, sealed by the first of the ten refrains, Woe that Day to the deniers.

On the oaths the sources divide. al-Tabarsi and al-Tusi catalogue the classical range: on the authority of Ibn Masʿud, Ibn ʿAbbas, Mujahid and others the mursalat are the winds sent in succession like a horse’s mane; in a second report (and from Abu Hamza al-Thumali from the companions of ʿAli) they are the angels sent with God’s command; some say the prophets. Both note the grammatical debate over whether one may swear only ‘by the Lord of’ these things (al-Jubbaʼi) or by the things themselves. al-Tabatabaʼi cuts through this: since the last oath, those who cast a Reminder, is all but explicit about the angels of revelation, the whole series should be read of the angels, parallel to al-Saffat 37:1–3; reading all five as winds, he argues, is strained. He adds a fine excursus on Qurʾanic oaths — the very providence sworn by (sending, spreading, separating, casting revelation) is itself the proof of the answer, since revelation presupposes accountability, hence a Day of Decision.

On the signs (vv.8–11) the three Arabic authorities agree closely: tumisat = the stars’ light is effaced (Q 81:2 compared); furijat = the sky is split; nusifat = the mountains uprooted (Q 20:105); uqqitat = the messengers are gathered for their appointed time to witness the nations (Q 7:6; 5:109), with al-Sadiq’s gloss, cited by all three, that it means ‘they were sent at differing times’. al-Qummi and al-Bahrani preserve the terse ascriptions of ʿAli b. Ibrahim; al-Bahrani also transmits an eschatological reading of the oaths themselves (gales = the grave, scatterers = the raising of the dead, separators = the Beast). The Enlightening Commentary lays out the three schools (all winds / all angels / a split reading) and, like al-Mizan, judges the resurrection-oriented sense superior, closing on the meaning of wayl and why the deniers of the Hereafter are singled out: rejecting the Day drags every other sin behind it.

All six sources are present; nothing is silent, and the passage carries no partisan material.