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lā yuʾminūna bihī wa-qad khalat sunnatu l-ʾawwalīna
they do not believe in it, and the precedent of the ancients has already passed.
— Ali Quli Qarai
15Al-ḤijrالحجرVerse 13 of 99
The Rocky Tract15. Al-Ḥijrالحجر
Al Ḥijr
The Rocky Tract
MeccanVerse 13 of 99
Surah Al-Hijr – Verses 12 - 15
12. “Thus do We make it to enter into the hearts of the guilty.”
13. “(But) they do not believe in it and such has been the way of the ancients.”
14. “And even if We opened to them a gate from the sky, so that they ascended into it all the while,”
15. “They would definitely say: "Indeed our eyes have been blindfolded, rather we are a people bewitched.”
In a few verses before, we had that the pagans requested the blissful Prophet (S) to bring forth angels for them to see. Here, verse 14 proclaims that even if Allah opens a gateway to them from the sky so that they will ascend it and they will see the angels and other things, they will not yet believe in the Truth, for their request for seeing angels is just a pretext, and an obstinate fellow may also deny his own ascent to the sky, too. Here are the verses:
“Thus do We make it to enter into the hearts of the guilty.”
“(But) they do not believe in it and such has been the way of the ancients.”
“And even if We opened to them a gate from the sky, so that they ascended into it all the while,”
Another verse of the Qur’an says:
“And had We sent a book down to you, written on a paper, so that they touched it with their own hands, certainly (still) those who disbelieved would have said: ‘This is naught but a manifest sorcery’.” 3
Anyway, such disbelievers are so immersed in the abyss of passions, insistence, and obstinacy with respect to the ‘untruth’ that they if any grounds are provided for them through which they can repeatedly ascend to the sky and descend from it, they still go on saying that they have been playing magic works on them and they claim that they are a group which has been under enchantment all over, and whatever they witness is never in anyway identical with reality.
The verse says:
“They would definitely say: "Indeed our eyes have been blindfolded, rather we are a people bewitched.”
It is not surprising that man reaches such heights in proportions as regards hostilities and obstinacy. For man’s inherent nature and his untouched inner self is able to receive the factual realities and observations of the true profiles of what is real. As a result of committing sin, having ignorance and hostility against the Truth, he will gradually adhere to what is utter ignorance and darkness. Certainly, it is possible to wipe out everything in the first stages, though once it is embedded in one’s nature, thus becoming habitual, it cannot be easily wiped out.
It is in this case that the profile of the Truth alters in man, as far as that the most rational arguments and the most explicit tangible reasons will have no impact on him, thus leading him to the denial of all the rational as well as tangible matters of life.
Footnotes