Page 440
wa-jaʿalnā min bayni ʾaydīhim saddan wa-min khalfihim saddan fa-ʾaghshaynāhum fa-hum lā yubṣirūna
And We have put a barrier before them and a barrier behind them, then We have blind-folded them, so they do not see.
— Ali Quli Qarai
36Yā-SīnيسVerse 9 of 83
Ya-Sin36. Yā-Sīnيس
Yā Sīn
Ya Sin
MeccanVerse 9 of 83
Surah Ya-Sin - Verses 9-10
9. “And We have put a barrier in front of them and a barrier behind them, and (further), We have covered them up, so they do not see.”
10. “And the same is to them whether you warn them or you do not warn them, they do not believe.”
The feature of the obstinate person has been illustrated very exactly and interestingly in this verse. The negligent faithless persons neither take an example from the past of pagans, nor from the miracle and argument which are in front of them. That is why there is another description about these persons in this verse. By implying that they are confronted a barrier in their front and a barrier in their behind, the verse illustrates the expressive hindrances they have, and that they are so surrounded between these two barriers that they can move neither forward nor backward.
It says:
In the meantime their eyes have been covered by a barrier and, consequently, they cannot see anything at all. It continues saying:
What a wonderful clear illustration it is! From one side, they are like some prisoners who are put in ring and chains. And, on the other side, this ring is so wide and vast that it has caused their heads to be kept upward unto the sky so that they do not see absolutely anything from around them. Think carefully about this kind of person who has such circumstances. What can he do? What thing does he understand? What can he see? And how can he walk? Such is the status of the self-loving egoistic men of pride, and the blind and deaf imitators, who are obstinate and zealous, in front of the face of the facts.
For this reason the Qur’an explicitly says:
The more your speech is influential, and the more the heavenly revelation is fairly effective, they will not affect unless they arrive into a receptive ground. If thousand years the world illuminating sun shines on a saline, and the life-giving rains come down on it, and the spring winds constantly pass over it, this land will not deliver any product save some thorn, because the receptivity of the recipient beside the activity of the agent is its condition.