Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 46 of 111

Al-Isra 17:46

وَجَعَلْنَا عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ أَكِنَّةً أَن يَفْقَهُوهُ وَفِىٓ ءَاذَانِهِمْ وَقْرًا ۚ وَإِذَا ذَكَرْتَ رَبَّكَ فِى ٱلْقُرْءَانِ وَحْدَهُۥ وَلَّوْا۟ عَلَىٰٓ أَدْبَـٰرِهِمْ نُفُورًا

“And We have placed over their hearts coverings, lest they understand it, and in their ears deafness. And when you mention your Lord alone in the Qur’ān, they turn back in aversion.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Hearts covered, ears weighed down, and the moment their Lord is named alone they bolt like startled animals, without a single argument.

A reflection

Understanding is on loan

The ayah speaks of the most private place a person has. Not his house or his money, but his heart and his ears. And it says jaʿalnā: We placed coverings there. Even the inner room of a human being is in Allah's hand.

That sentence quietly takes something from the proud. We like to think our understanding is ours. We earned it with study and sharpness, and nobody can take it away.

Picture a translator who has rendered Spanish novels into English for thirty years. One morning a small stroke takes her Spanish overnight. Her English is untouched, but the other language has gone. She relearns it like a schoolgirl, word by word, from picture cards. Two years later she is working again. She says she has never since thought of her fluency as hers.

The Prophet ﷺ lived as if he knew this every day. His wife Umm Salama was asked which supplication he made most often. She said: O Turner of hearts, make my heart firm upon Your religion. When she asked why, he said that every human heart lies between two of the fingers of Allah. Whom He wills He keeps upright; whom He wills He lets swerve. Al-Tirmidhi recorded it and called it ḥasan. We repeat the words as they came, without asking how.

Does a God who holds hearts like this need us to admire Him for it? He needs nothing from us at all (35:15). The knowledge is for our protection. A man who thinks his heart is safely his own never asks for it to be kept. A man who knows whose hand it is in asks every day.

The coverings in this ayah fell on those who had turned away, as the ayah before makes clear. The lesson for the rest of us is gratitude, and asking.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.