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Winds that carry a burden
وَأَرْسَلْنَا الرِّيَاحَ لَوَاقِحَ
15:22
وَأَرْسَلْنَا الرِّيَاحَ لَوَاقِحَ فَأَنزَلْنَا مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً
And We have sent the fertilizing winds, and sent down water from the sky.
The ayah in tafsir
Lawaqih: impregnating, pollinating, filling. The Arabs knew winds that “impregnate” the cloud so it gives water, and they knew winds that carry the male of the palm to the female. Both readings sit in the word. Ibn Kathir mentions the filling of the cloud.
What later eyes saw
Anemophily — wind pollination — is how grasses, grains, and many trees set seed. The same winds lift moisture. One word, two burdens: pollen and cloud. Later botany isolated the first; meteorology the second. The ayah held both.
Where we stop
Do not reduce lawaqih to pollen only, nor to rain only. The Arabic is richer than a single lab.