Reply to the doubt about Surat Ar-Ra’d, verse 13 , Is thunder an angel

 

And the thunder exalts Him with praise, and the angels, for fear of Him (verse 13).

Ibn Abbas said: The Jews came to Muhammad and said: Tell us about thunder, what is it? He said: An angel from the angels assigned to the clouds, with him are whips of fire, driving them with them wherever Allah wills. They said: What is this sound that is heard? He said: He rebukes the clouds until they end where they are commanded. They said: You have spoken the truth. Narrated by Al-Tirmidhi (Al-Razi in his interpretation of this verse).

Thunder, as is evident, is the electrical collision between clouds and each other, or between clouds and the earth.

, lightning, thunder and clouds are well-known scenes, as are the thunderbolts that sometimes accompany them. These are scenes that have an impact on the soul - whether for those who know a lot about their nature or for those who know nothing about God! The context gathers them here; and adds to them angels, shadows, glorification, prostration, fear and greed, true supplication and supplication that is not answered. And it adds to them another form: the form of someone in need of water, spreading his hands to reach it, opening his mouth to receive a drop..

All of these do not come together in the text by chance or randomly. Rather, they come together to cast their shadows on the scene, and wrap it in an atmosphere of awe and anticipation, fear and greed, supplication and trembling, in the context of depicting the authority of God alone in power, benefit and harm, denying the alleged partners, and terrorizing the consequences of associating partners with God.

{ It is He who shows you the lightning.} {Fear and hope }..

It is Allah who shows you this cosmic phenomenon, as it arises from the nature of the universe that He created in this special way, and gave it its characteristics and phenomena. Among them is lightning that He shows you according to His law, so you fear it because it shakes the nerves in itself, and because it may turn into a thunderbolt, and because it may be a harbinger of a destructive flood as your experiences have taught you. And you hope for goodness from it, as it may be followed by abundant rain that revives the dead and causes rivers to flow.

{ And He creates the heavy clouds }..

And He is also the One who creates the clouds - and clouds are a genus name, the singular of which is cloud - heavy with water. So according to His law in the creation and composition of this universe, clouds are formed, and rain falls. If He had not created the universe in this way, clouds would not have been formed, nor would rain have fallen. Knowing how clouds are formed, and how rain falls does not deprive this cosmic phenomenon of any of its magnificence, nor any of its significance. It is formed according to a special cosmic composition that no one made except Allah. And according to a specific law governing this structure, none of the servants of Allah participated in establishing it! Also, this universe did not create itself, nor did it create its own law!

And thunder... the third phenomenon of the atmosphere of rain, lightning and thunder... this resounding, crackling sound. It is an effect of the cosmic law, which Allah created - whatever its nature and causes - it is a reflection of Allah's creation in this universe, so it is praise and glorification of the power that shaped this system. Also, every beautiful, perfect creation glorifies and announces the praise and commendation of the Creator with what it bears of the effects of His creation of beauty and perfection. Perhaps the direct meaning of the word glorifies is what is actually intended, and thunder { glorifies } is an act of praising Allah. So this unseen that Allah has hidden from mankind must be received by mankind with belief and submission, and they do not know anything about this universe or about themselves except a little!

The expression was chosen to state the thunder’s glorification of praise, following the method of Quranic imagery in such a context, and to bestow the characteristics of life and its movements on the silent scenes of the universe to participate in the scene with a movement of the same kind as the whole scene - as I explained in detail in the book Artistic Imagery in the Quran - and the scene here is a scene of living beings in a natural atmosphere. In it, the angels glorify Him out of fear of Him, and in it, there is supplication to God, and supplication to partners. In it, there is someone extending his hands to the water to reach his mouth, but he cannot reach it. In the midst of this scene, the supplicant, the worshipper, the moving, the thunder participated as a living being with its voice in glorifying and supplicating.

Then the atmosphere of awe, supplication, lightning, thunder and heavy clouds is completed with thunderbolts that He sends to strike whomever He wills. Thunderbolts are a natural phenomenon arising from the composition of the universe in this manner; and God sometimes strikes with them those who changed what was in themselves and His wisdom required that He not give them respite, because He knew that there was no good in giving them respite, so they deserved destruction.

What is amazing is that in the terror of the lightning, thunder and thunderbolts, and in the tumult of the thunder glorifying Him with praise and the angels out of fear of Him and the roaring of the storms with His anger, in this terror human voices rise up in argument about God, the Owner of all these powers and the Sender of all these voices that rise above every argument and every impossibility:

{ And they dispute about God, while He is severe in penalty }!

Thus their weak voices are lost in the midst of this terror that responds to supplication, prayer, thunder, clatter, and lightning, all of which speak of the existence of God - about whom they dispute - and of His Oneness and the direction of glorification and praise to Him alone from the greatest spheres of the vast universe, and from the angels who glorify Him out of fear of Him ( and fear causes it to fall into this sphere ). So where in all of this are the voices of the weak among mankind as they dispute about God, who is extremely difficult?!

And they dispute about God and attribute to Him partners whom they call upon along with Him. And the call to God alone is the truth; and everything else is false and vanishing, and its owner will not gain from it except hardship.

It is He who shows you the lightning, causing fear and hope, and produces the heavy clouds. And the thunder exalts [Allah] with praise of Him, and the angels [as well] for fear of Him. And He sends thunderbolts and strikes with them whom He wills while they dispute about Allah, and He is severe in assault .... (Ar-Ra`d 12,13)

​​The noble verse highlights an aspect of the power of Allah, the Most High, and this aspect is represented in one of the signs of Allah ( lightning ).

“ And lightning : which is the gleam of the clouds, and it has two wings, a wing that overflows with glad tidings, because it heralds the falling of rain and the pouring of downpour from the sky so that mercy may spread among the servants, and a wing that carries the warning, and brings panic and anxiety to the souls, so the limbs tremble, the faces turn pale and the strength withdraws…

So God Almighty shows us the lightning that carries these two meanings ( fear and greed ) so that our tongues are busy mentioning God, glorifying Him and praising Him, because the entire universe glorifies God, from angels, thunder, lightning, trees and stones… But we, as humans, do not realize the true nature of this glorification, and the Almighty, the Compeller sends thunderbolts and strikes with them whomever He wills of His servants and punishes with them whomever He wills, so that those who have forgotten God may know that God is severe in punishment, severe in force and strength, He rules as He wills and does as He wills.

Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman told us, Abu Naim told us on the authority of Abdullah bin Al-Walid, and he used to be in… Banu Ujayl, on the authority of Bakir ibn Shihab, on the authority of Saeed ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn Abbas, who said:
The Jews came to the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, and said: O Abu al-Qasim, tell us about thunder, what is it? He said: It is an angel assigned to the clouds, with him are whips of fire with which he drives the clouds wherever God wills. They said: What is this sound that we hear? He said: It is his rebuking of the clouds when he rebukes them until they reach where he is commanded. They said: You have spoken the truth. So tell us about what Israel forbade himself. He said: He complained of sciatica and could not find anything that suited him except camel meat and milk, so he forbade them. They said: You have spoken the truth.

( With him are whips )
is the plural of mukhraq. It is originally a garment that is wrapped and used by children to beat each other with. What is meant here is a tool with which the angels drive the clouds.

“ He drives ”
meaning the angel in charge of the clouds

“ with it ”
meaning with those whips

( a drive )
meaning it is a drive

( when he drives it )
meaning when he drives it. Allah the Almighty said: {And those who drive with a drive} meaning the angels drive the clouds, meaning they drive them
“until it ends”
meaning the clouds reach

( where it is commanded )
in the passive form .

ـــــ

But in the Bible we see the nonsense and gibberish of the jungle where it is announced to us that thunder is the voice of God, so it was said:

Thunder is the voice of God

Job 37:2
Hear carefully the thunder of his voice and the roaring that comes out of his mouth ....After a roaring voice thunders with the voice of His majesty and does not delay it when His voice is heard .. (37:4) .. 5 God thunders with His voice, marvelously, He does great things that we do not comprehend.


Father Anthony Fikry says in his interpretation of this passage: The sound of thunder is an introduction that precedes the word of God as happened on Mount Sinai and then with Elijah.. Thunder is called the voice of God (Psalm 29:3).

Since Jesus is God in the doctrine of the cross, we say that it is certain and without doubt that there was rain, lightning and thunder in the time of Jesus, and since Jesus is a magical mixture of humanity and divinity, we say: How can thunder be the voice of God? Does divinity have a different tongue from the tongue of Jesus’ humanity?

These are less than a few questions that prove the corruption of the pagan doctrine of Christianity, which does not contradict the pagan doctrine of the Magi.

Which is more reasonable?!!!!! 

The doubt is focused on how he can be an angel when it is scientifically known that thunder and lightning are the result of electrical charges. The doubt here is that this contradicts

modern science, which is proven, and there is no objection to its meaning being proven, neither rationally nor religiously, but it may encounter opposition from some advocates of modern rationalism, and they may find in it a contradiction to what is taught in international colleges and universities that have made a theory such as the theory of evolution a basic thing in the curricula, so do not be surprised by such doubts issued by these minds

. If we return to what was mentioned in the hadith, we know that God Almighty has angels who have specific tasks that their Lord charges them with. There is Malik, the keeper of Hell, and the Angel of Death. Everyone believes in their existence.
“ Some of the sensory causes God linked to unseen causes, such as death, the sensory cause of which is illness, and the unseen cause of which is the withdrawal of the soul by the angel, and all by the command and power of God. So when it is proven by religious evidence that a sensory cause is linked to a unseen cause, then belief in both causes is obligatory in this case: the unseen and the sensory, and it is not permissible to deny either of them under any circumstances.
It is not impossible for God Almighty to charge an angel from the angels with directly handling these matters .

Thunder has a sensory cause, and lightning has a sensory cause, which is what natural scientists talk about.” There are unseen causes for the movement of clouds, and God knows best about them. Muslim scholars mention that the one charged with the matter of provisions is Michael. So when a sound hadith is reported about the subject of thunder and lightning and the connection of the angels to it, then it is understood as mentioning the unseen cause that does not negate the sensory cause. So if you understand this subject, you will know an important rule by which you can understand many texts . (Saeed Hawwa / Al-Asas fi Al-Tafsir 5/2747