“The blind and the seeing are not equal, nor are darkness and light, nor shade and scorching heat. Nor are the living and the dead equal. Indeed, Allah causes whomever He wills to hear, but you cannot make those in the graves hear. You are only a warner. Indeed, We have sent you with the truth as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner; and there was no nation except that a warner had passed among them. If they deny you, then those before them also denied: their messengers came to them with clear proofs, scriptures, and the illuminating Book. Then I seized those who disbelieved—so how severe was My reproach!” (19–26)

“The blind and the seeing are not equal”: that is, the ignorant and the learned. It is also said: the one blind to guidance and the one who sees by guidance—that is, the believer and the polytheist. “Nor are darkness and light”: that is, disbelief and faith. “Nor shade and scorching heat”: that is, Paradise and the Fire. Ibn Abbas said: al-harur is the hot wind at night, while al-samum is during the day. It is also said that al-harur occurs during the day with the sun. “Nor are the living and the dead equal”: that is, the believers and the disbelievers. It is also said: the learned and the ignorant.

“Indeed, Allah causes whomever He wills to hear,” so that he may take heed and respond; “but you cannot make those in the graves hear”: that is, the disbelievers. He likened them to the dead in their graves because they did not respond. “You are only a warner”: you are only one who warns them and cautions them against the Fire. “Indeed, We have sent you with the truth as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner; and there was no nation”—there was no past nation—“except that a warner had passed among them”: a prophet who warned them. “If they deny you, then those before them also denied: their messengers came to them with clear proofs, scriptures, and the illuminating Book”—the clear Book. The Book is mentioned again after the scriptures by way of emphasis. “Then I seized those who disbelieved—so how severe was My reproach!”