وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَسْتَمِعُ إِلَيْكَ وَجَعَلْنَا عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ أَكِنَّةً أَن يَفْقَهُوهُ وَفِىٓ ءَاذَانِهِمْ وَقْرًا … وَهُمْ يَنْهَوْنَ عَنْهُ وَيَنْـَٔوْنَ عَنْهُ وَإِن يُهْلِكُونَ إِلَّآ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ
"Among them are those who listen to you; but We have placed coverings over their hearts lest they understand it, and a heaviness in their ears… They both keep others away from it and themselves draw away. Thus they destroy none but themselves, and they are not aware of it."
These two words were treated in detail at Fuṣṣilat 41/5 — there they were said out of the mouths of the other side themselves: qulūbunā fī akinnatin … wa fī ādhāninā waqr. I rely on that treatment.
| Place | Who says it | Form |
|---|---|---|
| Fuṣṣilat 41/5 | The other side — about itself | Qulūbunā fī akinna — a claim |
| al-Anʿām 6/25 | The text — about them | Wa jaʿalnā ʿalā qulūbihim akinna — a statement |
And at Fuṣṣilat 41/44 it was recorded that the same word (waqr) is used by the text as well. Three occurrences: claim, finding, statement.
Two verbs, very close to one another in sound and separate in meaning: yanhawna (to keep another away) and yanʾawna (to draw away oneself).
I record this as an observation about the word order: the sentence sets two separate verbs side by side in almost the same sound. And the two are given as the two faces of a single behaviour: the one who draws away himself also drives others away.
وَإِن يُهْلِكُونَ إِلَّآ أَنفُسَهُمْ — and where the outcome turns back to is stated. The same turning-back was treated at Fāṭir 35/43 (wa lā yaḥīqu'l-makru'l-sayyiʾu illā bi-ahlih); I rely on that treatment.