The Reality of Thunder
TAKEN FROM THE AUTHENTIC AHAADEETH
(Translated by Aboo Talhah Daawood ibn Ronald Burbank,
rahimhullaah)
The thirteenth Soorah of the Qur.aan is Sooratur-Ra`d (the Soorah of Thunder), and it contains the Aayah, the Saying of Allaah-the Most High:
[[Meaning: And the thunder glorifies and praises Him, as do the
Angels out of awe of Him. He sends the thunderbolts and strikes with them
whomever He wills, yet still they dispute about Allaah. And He is the Mighty
One, severe in punishment.]]
[Sooratur- Ra`d: (13): 13]
* There is an authentic hadeeth which quotes the reason for the
sending down of this Aayah, reported by al-Bazzaar (3/54/no.2221:
‘Kashful-Astaar’)[and the following wording is his], Aboo Ya`laa
(6/87-88/no.3341), Ibn Abee `Aasim in ‘as-Sunnah’, and others as a hadeeth of
Anas-radiyallaahu `anhu- who said:
“Allaah’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) sent a man from his Companions to a chief
of the people of Ignorance, calling him to Allaah-the Exalted and Most High. So
he (the chief) responded:
‘What is this Lord of yours Whom you call me to? Is he made of
iron, or bronze, or silver, or gold?’
So the man came back to the Prophet (صلى
الله عليه وسلم) and informed
him, so the Prophet
(صلى الله عليه وسلم) sent him back for the second time, and he
gave the same reply.
So the man came back to the Prophet (صلى
الله عليه وسلم) and informed
him, so he sent him for the third time, and he gave the same reply.
So the man came back to the Prophet (صلى
الله عليه وسلم) and informed
him.
Then Allaah-the Exalted and Most High- sent a thunderbolt
(Saa.iqah) upon him, and destroyed him.
So Allaah’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه
وسلم) said:
"Allaah -the Exalted and Most High- has sent a thunderbolt
upon your companion and destroyed him. "
So this Aayah came down:
[[ Meaning: And He sends the thunderbolts and strikes with them
whomever He wills, yet still they dispute about Allaah”” [Sooratur- Ra`d: Aayah
13].’’
Shaikh al- Albaanee mentioned in his checking of Ibn Abee
`Aasim’s ‘as Sunnah’ ‘Zilaalul-
Jannah’(no.692), that its chain of narration is ‘Saheeh’.
* Also there is something else, an authentic narration in ‘Al
Kalimatut- Tayyib’ (no.157) of Shaikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah, that Shaikh
al-Albaanee declared authentic, from the practice of the Companion `Abdullaah
ibn az-Zubayr -radiyallaahu `anhumaa- that he would quote what is indicated in
the Aayah when it thundered.
The narration is: “ `Abdullaah ibn az-Zubayr, when he would hear
thunder, would leave off talking, and he would say:
( سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي يُسَبِّحُ الرَّعْدُ
بِحَمْدِهِ وَ الْمَلائِكَةُ مِنْ خِيفَتِهِ )
“Perfect is the One Whom the thunder glorifies and praises, and
the Angels likewise from awe of Him.”
Shaikh al- Albaanee declared this authentic in its chain of
narration, as a saying of the Companion.
Reported by Imaam Maalik (2/992) and from him by al-Bukhaaree in
‘Adabul- Mufrad’(no.723), and they add in the narration that he would say:
“This thunder is a severe threat for the people of the earth.”
* Likewise Shaikh al-Albaanee brings a hadeeth (no.1872) in
‘as-Saheehah’ which explains what the thunder actually is, under the heading:
“The thunder glorifies and praises Him.”
Shaikh al-Albaanee brings the hadeeth of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم):
The thunder is an Angel from the Angels who is entrusted with
the clouds, [in his hand- or: in his two hands there is a rod of fire with
which he strikes the cloud]; and the noise which is heard from it is his
striking the cloud when he strikes, so that it goes where he has commanded it.
Shaikh al- Albaanee said that this hadeeth has been reported by
at-Tirmidhee, Ahmad, Aboo Ishaaq al–Harbee, at-Tabaraanee, Ibnu Bishraan in his
‘Amaalee”, ad-Diyaa. al Maqdisee in his ‘al-Ahaadeethul-Mukhtaarah’ and others.
The addition in brackets was reported by al-Maqdisee and Ibn Mandah in
‘at-Tawheed’ (with the full wording.)
And the hadeeth is a hadeeth of `Abdullaah ibn `Abbaas
-radiyallaahu `anhumaa- who said:
“Some Jews came to the Prophet (صلى
الله عليه وسلم) and said:
‘O Abul- Qaasim! We are going to ask you about some things, if
you can respond to us about them we will follow you and attest to you and
believe in you’
So he (the Prophet) ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) took from them the promise which
Isra.aeel (Ya`qoob- `alaihis- Salaam) took upon himself, that they would say:
[meaning]“Allaah is a trustee over what we say.” [Soorah Yoosuf
(12): 66]
They said:
“So what is the sign of a Prophet?”
He said:
"That his eyes sleep but his heart does not sleep."
Then they said:
“Inform us, how is a woman turned into a woman, and how does a
soul become a man?”
So he responded:
"The two waters are cast together; so if the fluid of the
woman overcomes the fluid of the man it becomes a female, and if the fluid of
the man overcomes the fluid of the woman it becomes a male."
They said:
“You have spoken the truth, then inform us about the thunder,
what is it?”
So he, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) responded with the previously mentioned
hadeeth:
“The thunder is an Angel from the Angels who is entrusted with
the clouds, [in his hand (or in his two hands) there is a rod of fire with
which he strikes the cloud], and the noise which is heard from it is his
striking the cloud when he strikes so that it goes where he has commanded it.””
Shaikh al-Albaanee mentioned that this chain of narration is
fully connected, and its narrators are famous and reliable, and that it was
reported by an- Nasaa.ee in his ‘Sunanul- Kubraa’.
And Shaikh al-Albaanee mentions a further supporting narration,
quoted by al-Haafiz Ibn Hajr in ‘Takhreejul-Kashshaaf’ (p. 91) as being
reported by at-Tabaraanee in ‘al-Awsat’ as a narration of Jaabir: that
Khuzaymah ibn Thaabit-who is not the Ansaaree- asked the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
about the thunder, so he (صلى الله عليه وسلم) responded:
It is an angel who has a rod in his hand, when he raises it the
lightning occurs, and when it strikes it thunders, and when he has struck then
the reverberation is heard.
Then Shaikh al-Albaanee said concerning the main hadeeth:
“And the hadeeth overall is ‘hasan’ at the very least, and there
are other narrations, many of them, in this regard. as-Suyootee brought them in
‘ad-Durrul-Manthoor’, so whoever wishes may refer to them”
