ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمُ ٱسْتَحَبُّوا۟ ٱلْحَيَوٰةَ ٱلدُّنْيَا عَلَى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِى ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱلْكَٰفِرِينَ · أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ طَبَعَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ وَسَمْعِهِمْ وَأَبْصَٰرِهِمْ وَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْغَٰفِلُونَ · لَا جَرَمَ أَنَّهُمْ فِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ هُمُ ٱلْخَٰسِرُونَ
Dhālika bi-annahumu'staḥabbu'l-ḥayāta'l-dunyā ʿala'l-ākhirati wa anna'llāha lā yahdi'l-qawma'l-kāfirīn · Ulāʾika'lladhīna ṭabaʿa'llāhu ʿalā qulūbihim wa samʿihim wa abṣārihim wa ulāʾika humu'l-ghāfilūn · Lā jarama annahum fi'l-ākhirati humu'l-khāsirūn
"That is because they preferred the life of this world to the hereafter, and because God does not guide a denying people. · Those are they whose hearts, hearing and eyes God has sealed; and it is they who are the heedless. · Beyond doubt, in the hereafter it is they who are the losers."
In Form X (istaḥabba): to prefer, to choose one thing over another. The primary sense of the root is love; here Form X conveys the act of choosing.
And the ground must be recorded: the verse names the cause of the ruling in the hundred and sixth verse not as a question of belief but as a preference. The measure, then, is not what is believed — it is what is put first.
The sealing of the heart, the hearing and the eyes is the opposite of the triad given in the seventy-eighth verse. And the order has been reversed:
| Verse | Order | Verb |
|---|---|---|
| 78 | al-Samʿ → al-abṣār → al-afʾida | Jaʿala lakum — given |
| 108 | Qulūbihim → samʿihim → abṣārihim | Ṭabaʿa'llāhu — sealed |
The difference of order must be recorded, and I give this as my own reading: in the giving they were enumerated from outside inward — hearing, sight, apprehension. In the sealing they are enumerated from inside outward — the heart first.
The closing thus begins not at the organs of reception but at the centre of appraisal. This agrees with the sūra's own diagnosis: in the eighty-third verse the trouble was named denial after recognition — that is, not in the senses but at the stage of acceptance.
The root ط-ب-ع: to stamp a seal, to set a mark. The root was treated at al-Rūm, 30/58-59 (ka-dhālika yaṭbaʿu'llāhu ʿalā qulūbi'lladhīna lā yaʿlamūn); I rely on that treatment. And at al-Jāthiya, 45/23, the same triad occurred with khatm and ghishāwa.
And the construction lā jarama occurs for the second and last time in the sūra (23 and 109). This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra.