Q 79:5: fa-l-mudabirāti ’amran – "by the arrangers of a command."

These all invoke the same delivery of fate by feminine heavenly forces, dividing storm clouds.

Meteorological Function (Q 30:48): yağ‘aluhu kisafan fa-tarā l-wadqa yaḫruğu – "he makes them [the clouds] fragments so you see the rain coming forth."

People were in despair before this division (Q 30:49), awaiting their fate.

Literal Reading: "so by it [the Lord’s command] they divide an assembly [of clouds]."

Summary of Q 100:1-5 in Storm Context

Q 100 invokes humanity's inescapable dependence on heaven's storms, mediated by feminine forces in the sky.
These seasonal storms provide vegetation and life, saving men from desperation.
However, storms also deliver inescapable punishment and scattering when the Lord chooses.
These natural signs remind men of their dependence, but many are ungrateful, denying the cyclical process and ultimate judgment (Q 100:6-9).

Key Problems in Traditional Interpretations (Munther Younes)

Conflicting Explanations: Traditional interpretations are often contradictory and fail to provide coherent meaning.
Feminine Active Participles: Quran almost invariably uses these for female agents (women), or adjectivally. In Q 100, 79, 77, 51, 37, they are substantive.
- Surprising Omission: "The total absence of any mention of women in the tafsīr literature in explaining the meaning of these participles is surprising."
- Angels as Female: Tradition sometimes reads these as angels, but Quran criticizes those who consider angels female (Q 6:9, 37:150, 53:27).
Wa-l-‘ādiyāti ḍabḥan (Q 100:1):
- 'Ādiyāt literally means "one (f) who commits an aggression," plural, not "warhorses."
- ḍabḥan as "barking" is peculiar for horses; Younes rejects "peculiar panting."
- Oddity of plural feminine active participle with accusative masculine indefinite noun.
Naq‘an (Q 100:4): Traditional reading as "dust" is inconsistent with non-Quranic Arabic meanings, which refer to pooling/collecting water.
Bi-hi (Q 100:4-5): Tradition failed to explain the third-person masculine singular pronoun. Best argument was unspecified location, but Younes finds this illogical.

Younes' Proposed Re-reading (Rasm Disambiguation)

Suggests Q 100:1 could be wa-l-ġādiyāti ṣubḥā, “and those [women] who go out in the morning.”
Q 100:2 as “and who light a flame.”
Q 100:4 as women raising naf ‘ā (a good deed), rather than naq‘ā.
Critique of Younes: While traditional reading is untenable, Younes' re-pointing of rasm is not a solution. The storm interpretation offers an alternative.

Old Arabian Context and Safaitic Epigraphy

Seasonal Fate Ideology: Centuries of precedent in Arabia.
Watching the Sky: Safaitic inscribers obsessively watched the sky (tẓr ’-s1my) and asked the Lord of the Heavens, Ba‘al Samīn, for relief.
Rwḥ (winds) with Mṭr (rain): Common request, e.g., f h b‘ls1mn trwḥ b- mṭr, "so O Lord of the Heavens send the winds with rain."
Anxious Waiting: Often identified with ruling zodiacal constellation (e.g., tẓr ’-s1my b-mlḥ, "he awaited the sky [i.e. rains] during Aquarius").
Withholding Rain: Ba‘al-Samīn could withhold rain (e.g., hgz -h b‘ls1mn