Or as a cloudburst out of the heaven in which is darkness, and thunder, and lightning -
The meaning of they put their fingers in their ears against the thunderclaps, cautious of death: they are distracted from understanding by diversions and play and from listening to the verses that mention the threat [of chastisement], lest this succeeds [in admonishing them] by severing them from the pleasures of the natural world and [preoccupying them] with the burdensome thoughts about the Hereafter. For to desist from the pleasures of the senses is for them to die. But God is all-powerful against them and will cut them off from those pleasures to which they have become accustomed by means of natural death, the power of One who encompasses a thing so that nothing of it can escape Him [and God encompasses the disbelievers].
Yet their caution is of no avail [to them].