Tafseer of The Pilgrimage · Al-Hajj · 22:46
So have they not traveled through the earth and have hearts by which to reason and ears by which to hear? For indeed, it is not eyes that are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Allah, exalted be His remembrance, says: Have these who deny the signs of Allah and reject His power then not traveled through the lands, so that they might behold the places of the downfall of those who are like them among the deniers of the messengers of Allah who had come before them — such as ʿĀd, Thamūd, the people of Lūṭ and Shuʿayb — and their dwelling-places and abodes, so that they might reflect upon them, take a lesson from them, and through contemplation of their fate and the fate of their inhabitants come to know the way of Allah toward whoever was a disbeliever, worshipped another [than Allah], and gave the lie to His messengers — so that they might turn back from their insolence and disbelief? And then there would be for them, if they were to ponder this and take a lesson from it and return to the truth: قُلُوبٌ يَعْقِلُونَ بِهَا — [hearts that understand:] the proofs of Allah concerning His creation and His power, as we have explained; أَوْ آذَانٌ يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا — that is to say: or ears that listen to the hearing of the truth, that grasp it and distinguish between truth and falsehood.
His saying: فَإِنَّهَا لا تَعْمَى الأبْصَارُ — that is to say: their eyes are not blind to the seeing of forms and the perceiving of them; rather, they do see that with their eyes — but their hearts within their breasts are blind to the seeing of the truth and the knowing of it.
The "hā" in His saying: فَإِنَّهَا لا تَعْمَى is a "hāʾ al-ʿimād" (the supporting hā), as one says: "Inna-hu ʿAbd Allāh qāʾim."
It has been mentioned that in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh [Ibn Masʿūd] it reads: "fa-inna-hu lā taʿmā al-abṣār."
And there is His saying: وَلَكِنْ تَعْمَى الْقُلُوبُ الَّتِي فِي الصُّدُورِ — the hearts are, after all, located in the breasts; this serves to confirm the statement, just as there is: يَقُولُونَ بِأَفْواهِهِمْ مَا لَيْسَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ (they say with their mouths what is not in their hearts).
