Or as a cloudburst out of the heaven in which is darkness and thunder and lightning-they put their fingers in their ears against the thunderclaps cautious of death; and God encompasses the disbelievers. The meaning of His saying “Or” is that He gives either one of these two similitudes for [the hypocrites]. He compares the QurÌān to rain descend- ing from the heaven and compares the promises and threats in the QurÌān to the thunder and lightning in the rain. He compares their seeking refuge to [the ways they] flee from hearing the QurÌān distance themselves from attentiveness and neglect to try to gain insight to those who put their fingers in their ears against hearing the sounds of thunder. Similarly the allusion is to the heedless when the admonitions of those who admonish reach their ears or the lights of felicity shine on their hearts. If they would desist from their blind heedlessness they would be happy. But they keep each other distracted by false hopes and have resolved upon their corrupt path. They make weak excuses and swear by God “Had we been able we would have gone forth with you” destroying their souls [9:42] and they bring about their destruction by their own hands. Truly when the noble one gives you his love he veils the ugly and brings the beautiful to light. Similarly when the one who is tired wants to break things off he becomes weary of being together and says “That was that.”
