وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ ٱفْتَرَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ كَذِبًا أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ يُعْرَضُونَ عَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ وَيَقُولُ ٱلْأَشْهَٰدُ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا۟ عَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ … أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ خَسِرُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَضَلَّ عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَفْتَرُونَ · لَا جَرَمَ أَنَّهُمْ فِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ هُمُ ٱلْأَخْسَرُونَ
wa man aẓlamu mimmani'ftarā ʿalā'llāhi kadhibā, ulāʾika yuʿraḍūna ʿalā rabbihim wa yaqūlu'l-ashhādu hāʾulāʾi'lladhīna kadhabū ʿalā rabbihim, alā laʿnatu'llāhi ʿalā'l-ẓālimīn · alladhīna yaṣuddūna ʿan sabīli'llāhi wa yabghūnahā ʿiwajā wa hum bi'l-ākhirati hum kāfirūn · ulāʾika lam yakūnū muʿjizīna fi'l-arḍi wa mā kāna lahum min dūni'llāhi min awliyāʾ, yuḍāʿafu lahumu'l-ʿadhāb, mā kānū yastaṭīʿūna'l-samʿa wa mā kānū yubṣirūn · ulāʾika'lladhīna khasirū anfusahum wa ḍalla ʿanhum mā kānū yaftarūn · lā jarama annahum fi'l-ākhirati humu'l-akhsarūn
"And who does greater wrong than one who invents a lie against God? Those will be brought before their Lord, and the witnesses will say, 'These are the ones who lied against their Lord.' Take note: the curse of God is upon the wrongdoers. · They are the ones who bar others from the path of God and would have it crooked, and who deny the hereafter. · They were never going to frustrate Him on the earth, and they had no protectors besides God. The punishment will be doubled for them. They were not able to hear, and they did not see. · Those are the ones who have lost their own selves; and what they invented has gone astray from them. · Beyond all doubt, in the hereafter they are the greatest losers."
The root ع-و-ج: crookedness. The lexicographers record two vocalisations: ʿiwaj (with kasra) is crookedness in things not seen — a religion, a word, a disposition; ʿawaj (with fatḥa) is crookedness in things that are seen — a wall, a tree.
And the word here is ʿiwajan, that is, crookedness in the unseen field. This is a note about the language.
And the verb must be recorded: yabghūnahā — "they seek it, they work for it". The crookedness, that is, is not there in the path of itself; it is being sought.
This expression belongs to a field that recurs across this series. The proof from "do they hear?" was treated at Fuṣṣilat 41/5 (fī ādhāninā waqr) and in al-Aḥqāf and Fāṭir. I rely on that treatment.
The difference here must be recorded, and it is an observation about the language: the sentence does not say mā kānū yasmaʿūn ("they did not hear"); it says mā kānū yastaṭīʿūna'l-samʿ — "they were not able to hear".
The insertion of the verb of ability (istiṭāʿa) deepens the negation by one degree: the matter is not a failure to hear but the loss of the very possibility of hearing.
And it can be compared with the pattern in the fifteenth verse: there the return in this world was given in full; here the capacity to hear is used up. This is a contrast, and it can be read from the text.
The root ج-ر-م: to cut, to sever; and from there, a crime. The root has been treated in many places across this series (al-Shuʿarāʾ, al-Ṣāffāt, al-Qamar, al-Muṭaffifīn). The lexicographers explain the pattern lā jarama as "definitively, inescapably" — the idea of "cutting" in the root has become the cutting-off of the argument.
And the same root will occur once more in the sūra, in a wholly different office: wa lā yajrimannakum shiqāqī (89, Shuʿayb). The two occurrences do different work and that one will be treated separately in its place.
The root خ-س-ر: to diminish, to suffer loss. The root was treated at al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/181 (al-mukhsirīn).
And the word order of the verse must be recorded: in the twenty-first verse a verb (khasirū anfusahum), in the twenty-second an elative (al-akhsarūn). First the act, then the degree.