سورة الرعد

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): هُوَ الَّذِی یُرِیکُمُ الْبَرْقَ خَوْفاً وَ طَمَعاً [He it is Who shows you the lightning causing fear and hope]; meaning that on seeing the lightning some people become afraid and some become hopeful that rain will fall, وَ یُنْشِئُ السَّحابَ الثِّقالَ [and (Who) brings up the heavy cloud]; meaning He raises the heavy clouds from the earth.

Imam Rida (peace be upon him): هُوَ الَّذِی یُرِیکُمُ الْبَرْقَ خَوْفاً وَ طَمَعاً [He it is Who shows you the lightning causing fear and hope]; fear for the traveller, and hope for the one who is a resident.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Mas'ada ibn Sadaqa said: Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: When rain began to fall, Imam Ali (peace be upon him) would go out and stand under it, so that his head, beard and clothes became wet. He was told, "O Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him)! Come to the shelter, to the shelter." The Imam (peace be upon him) would say, "This rainwater has come down from near the Throne of Allah." Then he said, "Beneath the Throne of Allah there is a sea, whose water grows the sustenance of the animals; and whenever Allah the Mighty and Majestic, out of His kindness and mercy, wills that by that water something should grow for them, He reveals to that sea, and He sends down as much rain as He wishes from one heaven to another until it reaches the lowest heaven; and [in my opinion] He then places that water in the lowest heaven inside a cloud, and the cloud is like a sieve. Then Allah reveals to the wind to break up that cloud and dissolve it and turn it into water, and then to carry it to such and such a place and rain it down upon them. Some of the rain of that cloud turns into hail and other than hail, and as Allah has commanded it, it pours down upon them. With every drop of rain there is an angel who ensures that that drop falls exactly in the place where it should. Every drop of rain that falls from the sky has a fixed number and a known weight, except in the flood that occurred in the days of Nuh (peace be upon him). In that flood, the rain came down without measure and without limit."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): Indeed Allah the Exalted has made the clouds as sieves for the rain, and they dissolve the hail so that it becomes water, so that it does not harm anything it strikes. And those hailstones and thunderbolts that you see are, in reality, a blessing and a wrath of Allah, with which He afflicts whomever He wills of His servants.