Ar-Ra'd · Madani · ayah 12 of 43

Ar-Ra'd 13:12

هُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُرِيكُمُ ٱلْبَرْقَ خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا وَيُنشِئُ ٱلسَّحَابَ ٱلثِّقَالَ

“It is He who shows you lightning, [causing] fear and aspiration, and generates the heavy clouds.”

Saheeh International

Essence

One flash carries fear and hope at once, and the heavy clouds behind it are raised by the One who shows it to you.

A reflection

You did not catch the lightning; you were shown it

On a headland at two in the morning, a storm photographer waits beside her tripod. Her camera has a trigger that fires at the first flash. After an hour she gets one: a single bolt splitting into roots above the sea. She posts it before dawn with the caption 'Finally caught one.'

The ayah uses a different verb. Huwa alladhī yurīkum: He is the One who shows you. The verb is causative. You do not catch lightning; you are shown it, as a teacher holds up a picture to a class. And the sentence begins with huwa, He, as if pointing. Before the flash appears, the ayah has already named whose it is.

One classical commentator marvelled at a strange fact in plain sight. A cloud is heavy with water, and water puts out fire. Yet out of the cloud comes fire. He saw in it a Maker who brings opposites out of opposites. You need not share the physics of his age to share his wonder.

This is where the ego shrinks. We speak of nature as something we observe, measure and capture. Our cameras are faster and our forecasts better. None of it changes the grammar of the ayah. We are on the receiving end. Even the photograph is of something shown.

Someone may ask why Allah needs to display His power at all. Is it not a kind of vanity? Look at the small word kum: to you. The lightning is shown for your sake, not His. It comes with a gift of two feelings, fear and hope, and both of them are useful. He is free of all need (35:15). A display that benefits only the audience is not vanity. It is teaching.

So the next time a storm lights up the bedroom wall, try the ayah's grammar. Not 'look at that', but 'look what I am being shown'.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.