The four winds

I asked Aba Ja’far al-Baqir (MGB) regarding the four winds: the North wind; the South wind; the Eurus wind from the East ; and the Zephyr wind from the West . I told him, ‘The people say that the North wind blows from Paradise and the South wind blows from Hell. He (MGB) replied, ‘The Honorable the Exalted God has troops of winds with which He chastises the disobedient ones which He pleases to chastise. An angel is appointed to each wind. Whenever the Honorable the Exalted God wishes to impose a certain form of chastisement to a nation, He would inspire that appointed angel with what kind of chastisement He wants to be imposed upon them. The angel would issue an order to the wind to blow and the wind will roar like a lion. Each wind has a name. Consider what the Honorable the Exalted God said, ‘The Ad (people) (too) rejected (Truth): then how terrible was My Penalty and My Warning?’ And God mentions a wind to torture them as we read, ‘For We sent against them a furious wind, on a Day of violent Disaster, plucking out men as if they were roots of palm-trees torn up (from the ground).’ When the people talk of the North wind, the South wind, the Eurus or the Zephyr, they ascribe these winds to their appointed angels.’”