والأصل في نحو الكاف أن يليه المشبه به لفظاً
Normally the comparison image follows a marker such as kāf in the wording.
This describes the standard surface order, not an exceptionless account of every literary example. In the “like water We send down” verse, restricting the entire resemblance to the substance water weakens the connection with the later description of plants growing and then fading.
A more precise rhetorical reading may identify the intended comparison image as a complete condition described through several words. The noun immediately after the marker can introduce that condition without exhausting it. Grammatical proximity and completion of the rhetorical image are different issues.