And taking heed is remembrance in its fullest sense: the person who receives the reminder remembers it and benefits from it. Of others, Allah, Most High, says:

“No new reminder comes to them from their Lord but they listen to it in play, their hearts distracted.”

And He, Most High, says:

“No new reminder comes to them from the Most Merciful but they turn away from it.”

Thus, the reminder has reached them and established the proof against them. Yet they have not listened to it with their hearts, so they have not understood it; or they have understood it but have not acted upon it. As He says:

“Had Allah known any good in them, He would have made them hear. But even if He had made them hear, they would have turned away in aversion.”

Reminding in its particular sense is complete and beneficial: it results in the person reminded taking heed. This is the reminder referred to in His words:

“So remind, if the reminder benefits. Those who fear will take heed, but the most wretched will avoid it.”

That is, he is kept from the reminder. Yet it is only the reminder in its particular sense that he is kept from. As for the reminder common to all, through which the proof is established, he and others have been reminded by it, and the proof has been established against them.

Allah, Most High, says:

“We never punish until We have sent a messenger.”

And He says:

“So that people may have no argument against Allah after the messengers.”

And He says of the people of the Fire:

“Whenever a group is cast into it, its keepers ask them, ‘Did no warner come to you?’ They say, ‘Yes, a warner did come to us, but we denied him and said: Allah has sent down nothing.’”

And He, Most High, says:

“O company of jinn and mankind, did there not come to you messengers from among yourselves