وَٱلذَّٰرِيَـٰتِ ذَرْوًا
Waz-zaariyaati zarwaa
By those [winds] that scatter far and wide,
By the winds that scatter far and wide,
Four oaths open the surah with no subject named, each a feminine plural participle standing on its own, so a listener has to supply what is being sworn by. Commentary divides between reading all four as the winds and reading them as winds, rain-clouds, ships, and angels apportioning the affair. Whatever the referent, the oath holds for four verses before its answer lands, and the answer concerns the certainty of the reckoning.