The various phenomena of the sky also reflect the signs of Allah. Lightning flashes to announce the coming of rain. This rain becomes a shower of mercy for some settlements and brings a storm of punishment to others. Thus, it simultaneously emerges as a symbol of hope and fear. Hence, it is one and the same thing that, if the Lord wills, can be a form of reward or, if He wills, can be made a punishment.
Javed Ahmed Ghamidi writes:
That is to say, (these lightnings) by their existence teach that blessings and retributions, all are in the hands of God, and He has full authority over both reward and punishment, and He can transform whichever blessing He wants into a retribution and a retribution into a blessing. (Al-Bayan 4/55)
This is the same case with rain. It can be a cause of mercy and forgiveness, as well as wrath and anger. It is within Allah’s discretion to command it to irrigate fields and crops or to issue an order for it to wash away standing crops. In this context, regarding rain, the words fayuhī bihī al-ardh ba‘da mautihā (And then He revives the earth after its death) have been mentioned. Maulana Abul A‘la Maududi, in his explanation of this, writes:
This phenomenon indicates life after death on one hand, and on the other hand, it also signifies that there is God, and that the caretaker of the heavens and the earth is one God. The sustenance of countless creatures on earth depends on the produce that emerges from it. This produce relies on the fertility of the land. The activation of this fertility depends on rain, whether it falls directly on the land, is stored on the surface, takes the form of underground springs and wells, or freezes on mountains and flows in the form of rivers. Then, this rain depends on the heat of the sun, changes in seasons, atmospheric warmth and coolness, the circulation of winds, and the electricity that both triggers rain to fall from the clouds and adds a type of natural fertilizer to the rainwater. The establishment of these connections and compatibilities among all these various elements from earth to sky, their explicit suitability for countless different purposes and benefits, and their continuous and harmonious compatibility for thousands of years, can this all happen merely by chance? Could this occur without the wisdom of a Creator, without His thought-out plan and His dominant management? And is this not evidence that the Creator and Lord of the earth, sun, air, water, heat, cold, and the creatures of the earth is one and the same? (Tafheem-ul-Qur’an 3/748-749)