Tafseer of The Light · An-Noor · 24:43
Do you not see that Allah drives clouds? Then He brings them together, then He makes them into a mass, and you see the rain emerge from within it. And He sends down from the sky, mountains [of clouds] within which is hail, and He strikes with it whom He wills and averts it from whom He wills. The flash of its lightening almost takes away the eyesight.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Allah, exalted be His remembrance, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: أَلَمْ تَرَ — do you not see, O Muḥammad, أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُزْجِي — that Allah drives, that is to say: urges onward, سَحَابًا — clouds wherever He wills, ثُمَّ يُؤَلِّفُ بَيْنَهُ — then He joins the clouds together. The word "between" (bayna) is here related to "clouds" (saḥāb) without a second element being mentioned, even though "between" can normally only be related to a group or to two things. This is, however, permissible because "clouds" (saḥāb) stands in the meaning of a plural — the singular being "cloud" (saḥābah) — just as "palm trees" (nakhl) is the plural of "palm tree" (nakhlah), and "dates" (tamr) of "date" (tamrah). It is therefore comparable to the expression of one who says: "so-and-so sat between the palm trees." The joining together of the clouds by Allah means: He brings the scattered shreds of cloud together.
And His word: ثُمَّ يَجْعَلُهُ رُكَامًا — then He makes the clouds, which He drives onward and joins together part by part, into a piled-up mass, that is to say: stacked upon one another, the one above the other.
ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bayān related to us, saying: Khālid informed us, saying: Muṭar related to us, from Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, from ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr al-Laythī, who said: the winds are four in number. Allah sends the first wind, which thoroughly sweeps the earth. Then He sends the second, which brings clouds into being. Then He sends the third, which joins the clouds together and makes them into a piled-up mass. Finally He sends the fourth, which makes rain fall from them.
And His word: فَتَرَى الْوَدْقَ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ خِلَالِهِ — you see the rain coming forth from the interstices of the clouds. The "rain" is the wadq. The poet said:
"There was no rain cloud that rained as she rained, and no earth that made greenery sprout as she made it sprout."
The pronoun in مِنْ خِلَالِهِ (from its interstices) refers to "the clouds" (al-saḥāb). Al-khilāl is the plural of khall. From Ibn ʿAbbās and a group of others it is related that they read this as: "min khalalihī" — "from its rift."
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Ḥarmī ibn ʿUmārah related to us, saying: Shuʿbah related to us, saying: Qatādah related to us, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Muzāḥim, that he read this word: فَتَرَى الْوَدْقَ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ خِلَالِهِ as: "min khalalihī."
He said: Shuʿbah related to us, saying: ʿUmārah informed me, from a man, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that he read this word: فَتَرَى الْوَدْقَ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ خِلَالِهِ as: "min khalalihī."
Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related to us, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, from Hārūn, who said: ʿUmārah ibn Abī Ḥafṣah informed me, from a man, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that he read this as: "min khalalihī" with a short vowel on the khāʾ and without a long vowel. Hārūn said: I mentioned this to Abū ʿAmr, and he said: "it is fine, but khilālihī is broader in meaning."
As for the Qurʾān reciters of the great cities — they adhere to the other reading: "min khilālihī." That is the reading we choose, because the authoritative Qurʾān reciters are in agreement upon it.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning the word of Allah: فَتَرَى الْوَدْقَ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ خِلَالِهِ — the wadq is the drizzling rain, and al-khilāl are the clouds.
And His word: وَيُنَزِّلُ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مِن جِبَالٍ فِيهَا مِن بَرَدٍ — concerning this there are two opinions:
The first is that Allah sends down from the sky hail originating from mountains that are in the sky and were created there; the mountains in this case are themselves of hail, as one says: "mountains of clay."
The second opinion is that Allah sends down from the sky, in the magnitude and likeness of mountains, hail to the earth, as one says: "I have two houses' worth of hay with me" — what is meant is: the magnitude of two houses of hay, while the two houses are not of hay.
And His word: فَيُصِيبُ بِهِ مَن يَشَاءُ وَيَصْرِفُهُ عَن مَّن يَشَاءُ — He strikes with it whom He wills — that is to say: with that which He sends down from the sky in mountain-sized quantities of hail — and destroys him thereby, or destroys his harvest and his property. وَيَصْرِفُهُ عَن مَّن يَشَاءُ — from whomever of His creatures He wills, that is to say: from their harvest and their property.
And His word: يَكَادُ سَنَا بَرْقِهِ يَذْهَبُ بِالْأَبْصَارِ — the intense brightness of the lightning of these clouds would almost take away the eyesight of whoever directs his gaze upon it. The word sanā (without a long vowel at the end) is the light of the lightning.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning the word: يَكَادُ سَنَا بَرْقِهِ — he said: the light of his lightning.
Al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, from Maʿmar, from Qatādah, concerning the word: يَكَادُ سَنَا بَرْقِهِ — he said: the glittering of the lightning would almost take away the eyes.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning the word: يَكَادُ سَنَا بَرْقِهِ يَذْهَبُ بِالْأَبْصَارِ — he said: the gleam of it is a light that takes away the eyes.
The Qurʾān reciters of the great cities read يَكَادُ سَنَا بَرْقِهِ يَذْهَبُ with a short initial vowel on the yāʾ of yadhhabu — with the exception of Abū Jaʿfar al-Qāriʾ, who read: "yudhibu l-abṣāra" with a long initial vowel.
The reading that I alone hold to be correct is that with the short initial vowel, because the authoritative Qurʾān reciters are agreed upon it, and because the Arabs, when they insert the bāʾ into the object of dhahaba, say exclusively: "dhahabtu bihi" and not "adhabtu bihi." When, on the other hand, they add the lengthening hamzah to adhhaba, they generally avoid placing the bāʾ in the object and then say: "adhabtuhū" and "dhahabtu bihi."
