He it is Who brings up the heavy cloud

.. وَيُنْشِئُ السَّحَابَ الثِّقَالَ  [1]

 “He it is Who brings up the heavy cloud.”

أَوْ كَظُلُمَاتٍ فِي بَحْرٍ لُجِّيٍّ يَغْشَاهُ مَوْجٌ مِنْ فَوْقِهِ مَوْجٌ مِنْ فَوْقِهِ سَحَابٌ ظُلُمَاتٌ بَعْضُهَا فَوْقَ بَعْضٍ  [2]

 “Or like utter darkness in the deep sea; there covers it a wave above which is another wave, above which is a cloud, layers of utter darkness one above another.”

وَهُوَ الَّذِي يُرْسِلُ الرِّيَاحَ بُشْرًا بَيْنَ يَدَيْ رَحْمَتِهِ حَتَّى إِذَا أَقَلَّتْ سَحَابًا ثِقَالًا سُقْنَاهُ لِبَلَدٍ مَيِّتٍ فَأَنزَلْنَا بِهِ الْمَاءَ فَأَخْرَجْنَا بِهِ مِنْ كُلِّ الثَّمَرَاتِ ... [3]

“And He it is Who sends forth the winds bearing good news before His mercy, until, when they bring up a laden cloud, We drive it to a dead land, then We send down water on it, then bring forth with it of fruits of all kinds”.

The Hail

أَلَمْ تَرَى أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُزْجِي سَحَابًا ثُمَّ يُؤَلِّفُ بَيْنَهُ ثُمَّ يَجْعَلُهُ رُكَامًا فَتَرَى الْوَدْقَ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ خِلَالِهِ وَيُنَزِّلُ مِنْ السَّمَاءِ مِنْ جِبَالٍ فِيهَا مِنْ بَرَدٍ فَيُصِيبُ بِهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيَصْرِفُهُ عَنْ مَنْ يَشَاءُ يَكَادُ سَنَا بَرْقِهِ يَذْهَبُ بِالْأَبْصَارِ  [4]

“Do you not see that Allah drives along the clouds, then gathers them together, then piles them up, so that you see the rain coming forth from their midst? And He sends down of the clouds that are like mountains wherein is hail, afflicting therewith whom He pleases and turning it away from whom He pleases; the flash of His lightening almost takes away the sight.”

There contains a huge fire within the clouds, which are in fact the accumulation of water drops. The lightening inside the clouds is so strong as to hurt the eyes and the thunder it produces creates huge noise that will hurt our ears. It shakes all around it, when it occurs. The existence of this great energy inside this delicate heap of vapors is amazing, in deed.

The masses of clouds in the sky look like gigantic mountain, hence the word mountain is used in the verse. The clouds seem smooth when we look at them from beneath. However, those people who fly in planes have noticed that the clouds look like mountains, valleys, rough surfaces when looked at from above.

We may add to the above point the delicate observation that the hails are formed in the sky in the following manner: Some rain drops are separated from the clouds and then are carried to the upper layers of the atmosphere where it is extremely cold, drops then freeze. Then these frozen drops are taken up again into the clouds where they receive another layer of water that freezes once more. This process repeats itself till different layers are accumulated on the original rain drops. Then the hails become so heavy that the storm is not able to carry. These hails then have to fall onto the earth.

Some writers have provided us with the following interpretation for “the mountain of the clouds.” They say: In the above verses of the Holy Qur’an, the high and lofty clouds explicitly refer to the mountains of ice or mountains containing ice. This fact is interesting since after the invention of airplanes, scientists could observe clouds containing needles of ice. One of the Russian scientists uses the phrase “The mountains of clouds” several times in describing the stormy clouds.[5]