'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (or like a rainstorm from the sky). this is another simile, whereby the likeness of the hypocrites and jews vis-à-vis the qur'an is like rain that has poured down from heaven at night onto the wilderness, (wherein is darkness, thunder and the flash of lightening). such is the qur'an. for it has come down from allah; it contains darkness as embodied in the exposition of seditions, thunderings of rebuke whereby fear is instilled, lightening of exposition, instruction and promise. (they thrust their fingers in their ears by reason of the thunder-claps) due to the sound of the thunder (for fear of death), for fear of misfortune and death. similarly, the jews and hypocrites used to put their fingers in their ears when they heard the qur'an recited, delivering promises and threats like thunder-claps, and this they did for fear of death, i.e. for fear of being drawn to it. (and allah encompasseth the disbelievers) and hypocrites, i.e. he knows them and will gather them in hell.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : or, the likeness of them is as a cloudburst, that is, [the likeness of them is] as people are during rain (ka-sayyib: the term is originally sayyūb, from [the verb] sāba, yasūbu, meaning ‘it came down’); out of the heaven, out of the clouds, in which clouds is darkness, layer upon layer, and thunder, the angel in charge of them [sc. the clouds]; it is also said that this [thunder] is actually the sound of his voice; and lightning, the flash caused by his voice which he uses to drive them — they, the people under the rain, put their fingers, that is, their fingertips, in their ears against, because of, the thunderclaps, the violent sound of thunder, in order not to hear it, cautious of, fearful of, death, if they were to hear it. similar is the case with these: when the qur’ān is revealed, in which there is mention of the unbelief that is like darkness, the threat of punishment that is like the sound of thunder, and the clear arguments that are like the clear lightning, they shut their ears in order not to hear it and thereby incline towards [true] faith and abandon their religion, which for them would be death; and god encompasses the disbelievers in both knowledge and power, so they cannot escape him.
