The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 285
PT. 13 AR-RA'D CH. 13 هُوَ الَّذِي يُرِيكُمُ الْبَرْقَ خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا He it is Who shows you the. 13 lightning to inspire fear and hope, and He raises the heavy clouds. 1624 "30:25. guarded by angels and his own devoted Companions. The word rendered here as "a succession of angles" may refer both to the celestial beings in heaven and to the devoted Companions of the Holy Prophet who so eagerly guarded him with their lives. وَ يُنْشِئُ السَّحَابَ الثِّقَالَ & and benignity to those of His servants who have earned His favour by good works, unless they effect a change in themselves and forsake the path of virtue and take to evil. The verse thus hints that when a people are visited with successive afflictions which drive them to ruin and destruction, that is a sure sign that they have become morally and spiritually degenerate. 1624. Commentary: The pronoun "him" may also have a wider application, meaning, every person. In this case, the verse would mean that God has appointed guardian angels for the protection of every person. He is exposed every moment to various kinds of dangers; for instance, innumerable harmful germs enter his body with every breath but God has provided the fertilizing rain. It also helps to antidote in his very system and the germs very often fail to do him any harm. In diverse other ways also, man is providentially protected from dangers that assail him without his ever knowing of them. If applied to disbelievers, the verse would imply a warning to them that if they did not desist from their evil ways, God would withdraw His protection from them and they would perish. The words, Allah changes not the condition of a people until they change that which is in their hearts, do not mean that God shows no mercy or favour to the sinful and the wicked. It only means that He does not change His attitude of kindness Lightning inspires people both with sometimes men die of it and embryos fear and hope. It inspires fear because and certain plants get hurt. It also brings hope to men, for it heralds destroy germs of different diseases and thus serves to put an end to epidemics. Similarly, heavy clouds serve a twofold purpose. Very often they come as a mercy, because they bring much-needed rain. But they also cause floods resulting in death and destruction. Disbelievers are told in this verse that they should not feel proud of their possessions and power or of their kith and kin for, like lightning and heavy rain, these things cut both ways. While they are the source of happiness and honour for some, they cause the spiritual undoing of others. The similitude of heavy rain and lightning points to the supreme moral lesson that the primary thing is goodness of heart 1493