al-Isrāʾ 17:45-48

Wa idhā qaraʾta'l-qurʾāna jaʿalnā baynaka wa bayna'lladhīna lā yuʾminūna bi'l-ākhirati ḥijāban mastūrā · Wa jaʿalnā ʿalā qulūbihim akinnatan an yafqahūhu wa fī ādhānihim waqrā … Naḥnu aʿlamu bimā yastamiʿūna bihi idh yastamiʿūna ilayka wa idh hum najwā idh yaqūlu'l-ẓālimūna in tattabiʿūna illā rajulan masḥūrā · Unẓur kayfa ḍarabū laka'l-amthāla fa-ḍallū fa-lā yastaṭīʿūna sabīlā

"When you recite the Qurʾān, We place between you and those who do not believe in the hereafter a veiled curtain. And over their hearts We place coverings that keep them from grasping it, and in their ears a heaviness… We know very well what they listen for when they listen to you, and what the wrongdoers say when they whisper among themselves: 'You are following none but a bewitched man.' Look what likenesses they have coined for you — and so they have gone astray and can find no way!"

The construction is a place the lexicographers dwell on: mastūr is a passive participle — "veiled". Can a curtain itself be veiled?

Two explanations are transmitted:

Both explanations are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.

But the second reading agrees with the context of the verse, and I record this as an observation: the barrier is not physical. Those addressed hear the Qurʾān — indeed the forty-seventh verse says explicitly that they listen. The barrier, then, is not in the hearing but in the grasping.

أَكِنَّة — root ك-ن-ن: to cover, to conceal. Kināna — a quiver for arrows. وَقْر — a heaviness in the ear, deafness.

The same two words occurred at 41/5 in Fuṣṣilat from the mouths of those addressed themselves: qulūbunā fī akinnatin mimmā tadʿūnā ilayhi wa fī ādhāninā waqr — "our hearts are under coverings, and in our ears is a heaviness." It was treated there, and it was recorded there that those addressed were declaring themselves deaf.

The two verses can now be set opposite one another, and the circle closes:

The same two words, in one place a claim and in the other a finding. I record this as my own reading, and its support is the verbal overlap of the two verses: the text takes the other party's own description of itself and confirms it.

And it was recorded that the same structure was treated at 41/44 in Fuṣṣilat as well; I rely on that treatment.

"When you mention your Lord alone in the Qurʾān, they turn their backs in aversion."

The qualification must be recorded: waḥdahu — "alone".

I record this as an observation, and its support is the word itself: what provokes the reaction is not that God is mentioned — but that He alone is mentioned. The verse marks the exact place of the objection.

And the same structure was treated at 39/45 in al-Zumar (wa idhā dhukira'llāhu waḥdahu'shmaʾazzat qulūbu'lladhīna lā yuʾminūna bi'l-ākhira). The two verses describe the same reaction with the same qualification — and in both the expression "those who do not believe in the hereafter" occurs. This is an overlap between sūras that can be verified.

نَجْوَىٰ — root ن-ج-و: to whisper together, to speak in secret. The root was treated in detail in al-Mujādala. I do not repeat it here.

There is a point of word order in the verse: wa idh hum najwā — instead of "while they whisper together" the verbal noun itself is used. In Arabic this conveys intensification: as though they were whispering itself.

مَسْحُورًا — "bewitched".

The word occurs twice in this sūra, and the subject of the two occurrences differs:

The same accusation, at the two ends of the sūra, to two different messengers. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra, and it will be taken up separately at verse 101.

I record this as my own reading: the sūra records the word the other party uses, and a hundred verses later shows a far older instance of the same word. The objection, that is, is not new.

"They have coined likenesses for you."

One such likeness had already been reported in the forty-seventh verse: rajulan masḥūrā. The Qurʾān records other labels of this kind elsewhere too (poet, soothsayer, madman — treated in al-Ṭūr, al-Ḥāqqa and al-Takwīr).

And the outcome of the verse must be recorded: fa-ḍallū fa-lā yastaṭīʿūna sabīlā — "they have gone astray, and can find no way."

This sentence occurs verbatim at 25/9 in al-Furqān (fa-ḍallū fa-lā yastaṭīʿūna sabīlā) and stands there in the same context: after the likenesses ascribed to the Prophet. I rely on that treatment.

The two sūras close the same section with the same sentence. This is an overlap between sūras that can be verified.

I record this as an observation: what is recorded in both places is the same — the effort to label leads the labeller nowhere. Lā yastaṭīʿūna sabīlā: no way is found, for all the abundance of likenesses.