its intended purpose and benefit within the meaning of the term, in both affirmative and negative usage. Thus, one says, “So-and-so listens to so-and-so,” meaning that he obeys his commands or believes what he tells him. And “So-and-so does not hear what he is told” means that he neither believes the statement nor obeys the command, as Allah has explained concerning the disbelievers’ hearing in several passages, such as His words:

“The example of those who disbelieve is like that of one who calls out to what hears nothing but cries and calls.”

And His words:

“The deaf do not hear the call.”

This is because hearing the truth entails accepting it, just as sensation entails movement, and knowledge in the heart entails movement of the heart. Awareness of what is congenial prompts movement toward it, while awareness of what is repellent prompts aversion to it. Thus, when the necessary consequence is absent, this indicates the absence of its originating cause. Hence the Most High said:

“Only those who hear respond. As for the dead, Allah will resurrect them.”

For this reason, He likened the disbelievers’ hearing to that of livestock hearing the voices of shepherds: they hear mere sounds, as animals do. They do not hear the combinations of letters conveying meanings within those sounds with the hearing that must involve the heart as well as the body.

The Most High said:

“Avid listeners to lies, listeners to other people who have not come to you. They distort words after they have been put in their proper places, saying, ‘If you are given this, accept it.’”

He means that they respond to “other people,” and those people “have not come to you.” Those people “distort words after they have been put in their proper places,” saying to those who have come to you:

“If you are given this, accept it; but if you are not given it, beware.”

As they mentioned concerning the occasion of revelation of