Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 110 of 165

Al-An'am 6:110

وَنُقَلِّبُ أَفْـِٔدَتَهُمْ وَأَبْصَـٰرَهُمْ كَمَا لَمْ يُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِهِۦٓ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَنَذَرُهُمْ فِى طُغْيَـٰنِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ

“And We will turn away their hearts and their eyes just as they refused to believe in it [i.e., the revelation] the first time. And We will leave them in their transgression, wandering blindly.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Refuse the truth once, and the heart and eyes that meet the next sign are turned; whoever is left to himself wanders in his flood.

A reflection

Not even your own sight is yours to keep

A woman is shown the old drawing that is both a young woman and an old one. She sees the young woman at once. Her friend traces the old woman's nose and chin. Suddenly the old woman is all she can see. However hard she stares, the young one will not come back.

She has learned something unsettling. Her own eyes do not simply obey her. What she sees depends on something she does not command.

This ayah goes far deeper. 'We turn their hearts and their eyes.' The verb is nuqallibu: We turn over, We flip. The everyday word for heart, qalb, shares that root of turning, and the lexicons picture bread turned over on the fire. The word used here, afʾida, comes from a root of burning: meat roasting over embers. Both images are established. The fuʾād is the hot, tender centre where things are truly felt and known.

So the ayah names the two faculties people trust most. 'I know it in my heart.' 'I saw it with my own eyes.' Both are under another Hand.

Here the ego has to bow. Pride guards its perceptions as its last possession. I trust my gut. I see things clearly. The ayah answers that gut and sight alike are turned by Allah. No one owns his insight. It is lent, and it can be turned.

Is this a tyrant playing with hearts? The ayah answers in the same breath: 'as they did not believe in it the first time'. The turning follows a refusal. Allah gains nothing from anyone's sight. He owes no one a fresh view of the truth they pushed away.

The right response is not fear of being toyed with. It is humility about one's own certainty, and a daily request. Keep my heart facing You. Never let me see wrong as right.

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.