will you turn back on your heels?” And His words:

“Is it that whenever a messenger came to you with what your souls did not desire, you grew arrogant?”

And His words:

“Is it that whenever they made a covenant, a group of them cast it aside?”

This is eloquent and effective speech.

They also cited the poet’s words:

By your life, I do not know, though I may know—
Was it seven pebbles they cast, or eight?

And another’s words:

Your eye deceived you—or did you see at Wāsit,
In the gloom of night, a phantom of al-Rabāb?

The implied wording is: “Did your eye deceive you?” But this offers no evidence for their position, because the subsequent phrases “or eight” and “or did you see” indicate the omitted interrogative particle in the first verse. As for the second, if “or” connects two alternatives within a single question, the same applies. If it introduces a separate question, the opening statement retains its declarative meaning.

What these people intend is that the self has no influence on the occurrence of misfortunes.