Cloudy with a chance of Lollies

We have a little school holiday project, my children and I. And in the project I am reading about clouds. Very fascinating indeed.

When I was small I love watching the clouds fly in the sky especially on windy day. I would make a mental race among the cloud. But I am never bothered much with the supposedly shape they make. Bunnies ka, ice cream ka. I am just fascinated at the way they are spread and moved about. Glorious!

Apparently people around the world love cloud too. They love it so much that there is even an association called Cloud appreciation society. Check it out at the name i just mentioned with a dot org.

So I thought of sharing with you some of the cloud pictures they have.



And there are these bubble clouds. Feel like scraping them. They are called mamatus.



os stripy cloud



Or perhaps wave cloud



or maybe UFO cloud



and check out these new series of cloud which has no latin name for it yet. Subhanallah!



OK this is my only cloud picture. Ignore the model. I called it (the cloud not the model) feather cloud. Bulucirrus.



But big dark clouds scare me. It scares me just like a vast black ocean. I feel like they will engulf me forever. Like the clouds below. *Shudders* I am definitely not cut to be one of those storm chasers or tornado spotters.



Do you know that Prophet Muhammad sallahu alaihi wasalam, whenever he sees dark clouds approaching, he'd be worried. he would enter the house and the go out, then would pace up and down. However if it rained, he would become happy.

When asked is he looking so worried, he would say, "It could be what the people of 'Ad have faced previously. The 'Ad had said, when they saw dense cloud coming towards their valleys, they say, "This is a cloud that will give us rain"". But rather it was a cloud of punishment which was so violent it overthrows them in the air and let them fall on their head. And this wind lasted for seven nights and eight days non stop.

Al Haqqah 69:6-7

And as for ‘Ad, they were destroyed by a furious violent wind! Which Allâh imposed on them for seven nights and eight days in succession, so that you could see men lying overthrown (destroyed), as if they were hollow trunks of date-palms!

Al Qamar 54:19-20

Verily, We sent against them a furious wind of harsh voice on a day of evil omen and continuous calamity. Plucking out men as if they were uprooted stems of date-palms

And thus we can make dua' when we see clouds of rain,

Oh Allah Bring beneficial rain clouds

or

the dua' when he asked for rain

Oh Allah shower upon us abundant rain, beneficial and not harmful, swiftly and not delayed

Abu Dawud.

Prayer (Kitab Al-Salat): Details of Commencing Prayer

Dawud :: Book 3 : Hadith 1165
Narrated Jabir ibn Abdullah:

The people came to the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) weeping (due to drought). He said (making supplication): O Allah! give us rain which will replenish us, abundant, fertilising and profitable, not injurious, granting it now without delay. He (the narrator) said: Thereupon the sky became overcast.

Invoking Allah for Rain (Istisqaa)

Bukhari :: Book 2 :: Volume 17 :: Hadith 142
Narrated Aisha:

Whenever Allah’s Apostle saw the rain, he used to say, “O Allah! Let it be a strong fruitful rain.”

May we be spared from such calamity. May we be in His straight path.

So which cloud picture you like most?