affects both the cognitive and practical faculties. It is like someone afflicted by bile who finds honey bitter: his very perception has become impaired, so that he perceives it contrary to its true nature because of the bile mingled with it. The same applies to someone whose inward state has become corrupted. Allah, exalted is He, says:

“And what will make you realize that even if it came, they would not believe?”

“And We turn their hearts and eyes away, just as they did not believe in it the first time, and leave them wandering blindly in their transgression.”

And He, exalted is He, says:

“When they deviated, Allah caused their hearts to deviate.”

And He says:

“And for their saying, ‘Our hearts are covered.’ Rather, Allah has sealed them because of their disbelief.”

And in the other verse He says:

“They said, ‘Our hearts are covered.’ Rather, Allah has cursed them because of their disbelief.”

Ghulf, “covered,” is the plural of aghlaf: something enclosed in a covering, like an uncircumcised person. It is as though they regarded the impediment as something innate—that their hearts were created with coverings over them. Allah, exalted is He, therefore says:

“Rather, Allah has cursed them because of their disbelief,”

and:

“Allah has sealed them because of their disbelief, so they believe but little.”

And He, exalted is He, says:

“Among them are those who listen to you, but when they leave your presence, they say to those who have been given knowledge, ‘What did he just say?’ Those are the ones whose hearts Allah has sealed and who follow their own desires.”

Likewise, they said:

“O Shuʿayb, we do not understand much of what you say.”

He says:

“Had Allah known any good in them, He would have made them hear.”

That is, He would have made them understand what they heard. He then says that, had He made them understand while they remained in their present state:

“They would have turned away in aversion.”

Their innate disposition has thus become corrupted: they did not understand, and even if they had understood, they would not have acted. He therefore denies that either their cognitive faculty or their practical faculty is sound. And He says:

“Or do you think that most of them hear or understand? They are only like livestock; rather, they are even further astray