Arabiq Online - Arabic of the Qur'an

Sūra al-Ḥijr 15:22

Our word today is رِيَاحٌ ‘winds’ mentioned 10 times in the Qur’an as a plural and 19 times in its singular form  رِيْحٌ ‘wind’. In this juz’, in ayah 22 of Surah al-Hijr, Allah says:

وَأَرْسَلْنَا الرِّيَاحَ لَوَاقِحَ فَأَنْزَلْنَا مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءًا فَأَسْقَيْنَاكُمُوْهُ؛

We send the winds to fertilize, and We bring down water from the sky for you to drink  

Before even going into the subtle differences between رِيْحٌ and رِيَاحٌ it’s worth pausing to reflect on the beauty of this ayah, and how much symmetry and assonance it has in its tone and rhythm: 

أَرْسَلْنَا (arsalna) and أَنْزَلْنَا (anzalna)

رِيَاحٌ (riyāḥ) and لَوَاقِحَ (lawāqiḥ) 

سَمَاء (samāʾ) and مَاء (mā’) 

followed by the longest word in the Qur’an: فَأَسْقَيْنَاكُمُوْهُ  (fa-asqaynākumūhu) - one single word, which needs at least 6 in English to translate it: 

so we quenched you from it.

So what is the difference between  رِيْحٌ and رِيَاحٌ? 

Qur’an scholars have observed that generally, 9/10 times, Allah uses the plural winds (رِيَاحٌ) when He talks of winds bringing mercy, rain, glad tidings, fertilizing, and He uses the singular  رِيْحٌ as a sharp, biting wind of punishment or calamity. In any case, His mercy outnumbers and outweighs His wrath, even in something as simple as winds!