Tafsir of Fatir 35:9

"And it is read: 'He sent the wind' (singular)."

If you ask: Why did fatuthiru (it stirs up) come in the present tense (mudari‘), unlike what precedes it and what follows it?

I say: To depict the state in which the stirring of the clouds by the winds occurs, and to bring to mind those marvelous images that indicate Divine Power. This is how they act with a verb that possesses a type of distinction and specificity regarding a state that is found strange, or that concerns the addressee, or other such reasons. As Ta’abbata Sharran said:

By my father, I encountered the Ghul plunging Into a desert, like a parchment, vast and level. So I struck her without panic, and she fell Prostrate, upon her hands and her throat.

He intended to portray to his people the state in which he—by his claim—was emboldened to strike the Ghul, as if he were making them see it and revealing its essence to them, witnessing it to evoke wonder at his boldness in the face of every terror and his steadfastness in every hardship.

Likewise, the driving of the clouds to a dead land and the reviving of the earth with rain after its death: because these are among the proofs of overwhelming power, it was said: Fasuqna (We drove) and Ahyayna (We revived). This shifts from the third-person pronoun to that which is more deeply rooted in specificity and more indicative of it.

The Kaf in Kadhalika (Thus) is in the nominative position; meaning: Like the reviving of the dead land is the resurrection of the dead.

It is narrated that it was said to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ): "How does Allah revive the dead? And what is the sign of that in His creation?" He said: "Have you passed by a valley of your people, barren, and then passed by it while it was swaying with greenery?" He said: "Yes." He said: "Thus does Allah revive the dead, and that is His sign in His creation."

It is also said: Allah will revive the creation with water He sends from beneath the Throne, like the semen of men, from which the bodies of the creation will sprout.

{Whoever desires honor, then to Allah belongs all honor. To Him ascends the good word, and the righteous deed raises it. And those who plot evil deeds—for them is a severe punishment, and the plotting of those—it will perish.}