Or like a heavy downpour from the sky in which are darknesses, thunder, and lightning; they put their fingers in their ears against the thunderbolts, out of fear of death; and The God encompasses the coverers of truth (kafirin).
This verse begins the second parable of the hypocrites. In verses 17 and 18, they were compared to someone who kindled a fire, then lost the light and was left in darknesses. Now a more intense image appears: a heavy downpour from the sky, with darknesses, thunder, lightning, thunderbolts, and fear of death.
Ṣayyib does not suggest a light and gentle rain. The verse itself shows that this is not a calm scene, because darknesses, thunder, lightning, thunderbolts, and fear of death are all present. The image is one of a forceful storm.
Yet this storm is not only a natural scene. Revelation and guidance descend from above, just as rain descends from the sky and can originally be a source of life. But for a diseased heart and a society polluted by hypocrisy, the same heavenly descent becomes an experience mixed with darkness, fear, anxiety, thunder, lightning, and thunderbolts.
In this parable, darknesses show confusion and loss of direction. Thunder is the shaking sound of warning. Lightning is the brief flash in which truth becomes visible. The thunderbolt is the crushing consequence of facing truth, the very thing they fear and flee from hearing.
The verse says they put their fingers in their ears. The image is forceful: they are not merely avoiding a little sound. They want to block the path of hearing with all their effort.
This is not only natural fear of death. They fear death, but this fear does not bring them to truth, repentance, reform, or return. They flee the thunderbolt, but they do not leave their hypocrisy.
The image can also be seen socially. When religious life is shaped by fear, coercion, human-made authorities, factionalism, and parallel systems that displace the light of revelation, what should be a rain of mercy can become, in people’s experience, a storm of anxiety, threat, and darkness.
The ending is important: “and the One God encompasses the coverers of truth.” The context is hypocrisy, yet the verse ends with the language of covering truth. Hypocrisy, when it systemically covers truth, joins the deeper reality of kufr: hiding what has become clear.
They may imagine that by blocking their ears, fleeing the thunderbolt, silencing questions, or hiding behind religious names, they can escape truth. But no one is outside the encompassing reality of the One God.