"{and when darkness covers them}", he is a man who grasps a fringe of the truth, unable to go beyond it.

And the fourth is what—

454- Al-Muthannā narrated to me, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us, he said: Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to me, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, from Ibn ʿAbbās: "{Or like a rainstorm from the sky}", which is rain; He struck its parable in the Qurʾān, saying: "{within which is darkness}", saying: trial; "{and thunder}", saying: in it is intimidation; "{and lightning}, {the lightning almost snatches away their sight}", saying: the decisive verses of the Qurʾān almost point out the defects of the hypocrites; "{whenever it flashes for them, they walk therein}", saying: whenever the hypocrites attain glory from Islam, they feel reassured, but if a calamity strikes Islam, they stand still to return to disbelief; He says: "{and when darkness covers them, they stand still}", like His statement: {And of the people is he who worships God on an edge. If good befalls him, he is reassured by it; but if a trial strikes him, he turns on his face. He has lost this world and the Hereafter. That is the manifest loss} [Sūrat al-Ḥajj: 11].

Then the rest of the scholars of interpretation differed after that regarding that, similar to the difference narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās:

455- Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-Bāhilī narrated to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim narrated to us, from ʿĪsā ibn Maymūn, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, he said: The flashing of the lightning and its darkening are according to the like of that parable.

456- Al-Muthannā narrated to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfah narrated to us, he said: Shibl narrated to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.