a whip wielded by an angel who drives the clouds. Shahr ibn Hawshab said: “Thunder is an angel who drives the clouds; when they disperse, he gathers them together, and when his anger becomes intense, fire flies from his mouth—these are the thunderbolts.” It was also said that thunder is the sound produced by the shifting of the wind among the clouds, but the first view is sounder.
“They thrust their fingers into their ears against the thunderclaps”: ṣawāʿiq is the plural of ṣāʿiqah, a cry that causes whoever hears it either to die or to faint. Every destructive punishment is also called a ṣāʿiqah. It was also said that a ṣāʿiqah is a portion of punishment which Allah, exalted is He, sends down upon whomever He wills.
It is narrated from Salim ibn Abd Allah ibn Umar, from his father, that whenever the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, heard the sound of thunder and thunderclaps, he would say: “O Allah, do not kill us through Your wrath, nor destroy us through Your punishment; rather, grant us well-being before that.” (2)
His saying, “for fear of death,” means: for fear of destruction. “Yet Allah encompasses the disbelievers”: that is, He knows them. It was also said: He gathers them together. Mujahid said: “He gathers them and then punishes them.” It was also said: He destroys them, as indicated by His saying, “unless you are all encompassed” (Yusuf 12:66)—that is, unless you are all destroyed. Abu Amr and al-Kisa’i apply imālah to “the disbelievers” when it occurs in the accusative or genitive case, but they do not apply it to “the first to disbelieve in it” (al-Baqarah 2:41).
“The lightning almost”: that is, it nearly. One says, “It almost did so,” when it came near to doing so but did not do it. “Snatches away their sight”: that is, seizes it suddenly; snatching is taking something swiftly. “Whenever” consists of kull joined to the conditional particle mā, thus becoming an expression of repetition; together, they mean “whenever.” “Whenever it lights their way, they walk in it; but whenever darkness falls over them, they stand still”: that is, they stand bewildered.
Thus Allah, exalted is He, likens them in their disbelief and hypocrisy to people in an open desert on a dark night, overtaken by rain containing such darkness that a traveller cannot (3) walk through it; thunder so terrifying that those who hear it press their fingers into their ears; and lightning so intense that it nearly snatches away and blinds their sight through the force of its blazing. This is a parable which Allah sets forth concerning the Quran and the conduct of the disbelievers and hypocrites towards it. The rain is the Quran, because it gives life to hearts just as rain gives life to bodies. The darknesses are the Quran’s mention of disbelief and associationism; the thunder is the threats, warnings, and mention of the Fire by which they were frightened; and the lightning is the guidance, clarification, promise, and mention of Paradise contained in it.