Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:46
Say, "Have you considered: if Allah should take away your hearing and your sight and set a seal upon your hearts, which deity other than Allah could bring them [back] to you?" Look how we diversify the verses; then they [still] turn away.
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.
The explanation of His word: قُلْ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِنْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ سَمْعَكُمْ وَأَبْصَارَكُمْ وَخَتَمَ عَلَى قُلُوبِكُمْ مَنْ إِلَهٌ غَيْرُ اللَّهِ يَأْتِيكُمْ بِهِ انْظُرْ كَيْفَ نُصَرِّفُ الآيَاتِ ثُمَّ هُمْ يَصْدِفُونَ (46) ("Say: Have you considered? If Allah were to take away your hearing and your sight and seal your hearts, what god other than Allah could restore them to you? See how We expound the signs in manifold ways, and yet they turn away") (6:46).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: Say, O Muḥammad, to these who set up idols and statues as equals alongside Me and who reject you: Have you considered, O you who associate others as partners alongside Allah (mushrikīn), if Allah were to make you deaf and take away your hearing, and make you blind and take away your sight, and seal your hearts so that He closes them up, until you understand no word, see no proof, and grasp nothing, (5) what god other than Allah—to whom belongs the worship of every worshipper—= "could restore them to you," that is to say: would give back to you what Allah has taken away from you of hearing, sight, and the faculty of understanding, so that you might worship him or make him a partner in the worship of your Lord, who has the power to take that away from you and to give it back to you whenever He wills?
This is, from the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, an instruction to His prophet in the argument against the polytheists (mushrikīn). He says to him: say to them: those whom you worship alongside Allah possess for you no power of harm nor of benefit. Only He deserves worship from you, in whose hand lie harm and benefit, withholding and granting, He who is powerful over all that He wills, not the powerless one who has power over nothing.
Then the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, said to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: "See how We expound the signs in manifold ways," He says: see how We bring the proofs to them one after another, and set before them the parables and lessons, so that they might take instruction from them, reflect, and turn to Him, (6) = "and yet they turn away," He says: and yet they turn, despite Our bringing the proofs to them one after another and warning them through the lessons, away from reflection and instruction.
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Of this it is said: "So-and-so turned his face away from me, he turns away, ṣudūfan and ṣadfan," meaning: he turned and turned away. To this belongs the word of Ibn al-Riqāʿ:
"When they mention a discourse, they say the best of it, and they turn away from all evil that is to be shunned." (7)
And Labīd said:
"He gives drink, before the night, to those who turn away from drinking, resembling jinn, with fine garments and cloaks upon them." (8)
Were someone to say: how is it said "what god other than Allah could restore them to you" (yaʾtīkum bihi), with the singular of the "hāʾ" (the pronoun), while the preceding mention was in the plural when He said: "if Allah were to take away your hearing and your sight and seal your hearts"?
The answer is: it is possible that the "hāʾ" refers back to "the hearing" (al-samʿ), and then it stands in the singular on account of the singular of "the hearing." = And it is possible that what is meant by it is: what god other than Allah would bring back to you what was taken away from you of hearing, sight, and hearts, and then it stands in the singular on account of the singular of "mā" (what). The Arabs do that: when they refer to actions, they use the pronoun in the singular, even though that which is referred to of actions is many, as in their expression: "your coming and your going pleases me." (9)
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And it has been said: that the "hāʾ" in "bihi" is a reference to "the guidance" (al-hudā). (10)
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In accordance with what we have said concerning the explanation of His word "yaṣdifūn" (they turn away), the people of exegesis spoke.
* Mention of who said that:
13244 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning His word "yaṣdifūn," he said: they turn away.
13245 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
13246 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His word "yaṣdifūn," he said: they deviate.
13247 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His word "We expound the signs in manifold ways, and yet they turn away," he said: they turn away from it.
13248 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "and yet they turn away," he said: they hold back.
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Footnotes:
(5) See the explanation of "the sealing of the heart" as previously mentioned 1: 258-262.
(6) See the explanation of "al-taṣrīf" as previously mentioned 3: 275, 276.
(7) I have not found the verse, and I do not know the place of the qaṣīda.
(8) His dīwān, qaṣīda no. 12, verse 22. This verse belongs to verses in which he praises himself with excellence, and preceding it: "And I do not say, when a calamity strikes: O woe to my soul for what fate has brought about. And with companions whom I led I do not lose the way, when the trodden path branches off in the darkness. And I let the trade make a profit, when their provision becomes scarce, until a group returns around him unharmed." [Here follows an extensive text-critical discussion of the verses, which in the printed edition is partly repeated.] "Al-muʿabbad": the trodden way. He says: when the trodden way branches off and becomes different paths, I find the right direction and keep to it, and do not go astray. And "al-tajr": the sellers of wine. And "al-fiḍāl": the remnants of wine in the cask and the barrel. And "ʿazzat": became scarce and dear. He says: I buy the wine for the high price when it is scarce, and then give my companions to drink until they collapse around the wineskin, as though they return unharmed like one struck by a snakebite. And his word "gharbu al-maṣabba" describes the wineskin; he says: abundant is the wine that he pours out, and when he fells a drinker, his felling is of praiseworthy consequence, of praiseworthy outcome. And his word "lāhī al-nahār" means that one does not touch him during the day, but when the night comes they take him as a captive between them, and he is treated with contempt, because he is passed on from one to another. And his word "yurwī qawāmiḥ" means the wineskin that brings them to satiety; and "al-qawāmiḥ" are those who at first loathed the drinking and disdained it. He says: during the day they loathed the drinking and turned away from it, but when night fell, he directed himself toward jinn-like ones full of liveliness and devotion, with fine garments and cloaks upon them, which means that they are people of luxury and abundance when the night comes, keeping nightly company and drinking.
(9) See Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 335.
(10) And this too al-Farrāʾ mentioned in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān 1: 335.
