The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Luqmān – Verse 7

وَإِذا تُتلىٰ عَلَيهِ آياتُنا وَلّىٰ مُستَكبِرًا كَأَن لَم يَسمَعها كَأَنَّ في أُذُنَيهِ وَقرًا ۖ فَبَشِّرهُ بِعَذابٍ أَليمٍ

And when Our signs are recited to him he turns away disdainfully as if he had not heard them [at all], as if there were a deafness in his ears. So inform him of a painful punishment.

EXEGESIS

Waqr (deafness)‎[1] is heaviness in the ear,‎[2] or a heavy load‎[3] which prevents one from hearing.‎[4] It is as if the person has pulled or drawn tight his ears or has pressed his ears such that it prevents him from hearing what is being said.‎[5] Consequently, it has been suggested to be a figure of speech for deafness.‎[6] This word occurs six times in the Quran and it occurs in the sense of an inability or lack of desire to hear the truth (6:25, 17:46, 18:57, 31:7, 41:5, 41:44).

Bashshir (inform) is a masculine singular imperative verb with b-sh-r as its root letters. These root letters mean good tidings, to give good tidings, a human being, skin, first signs, to be in skin to skin contact.‎[7] Sharīf al-Raḍī writes that the word bishārah is conventionally used to mean good or glad tidings which bring about happiness and delight. It is not conventionally used to convey bad or sad news such as in this verse, which threatens painful punishment.‎[8] Hence, it occurs here as a figure of speech, to mean the conveying of bad tidings in an ironical manner, or with a sense of irony, he writes.‎[9] Other verses which employ this imperative with the sense of irony are 3:21, 4:138, 9:3, 9:34, 45:8, 84:24, and 5:60. The following explanation of the Arabic grammarian al-Mubarrad, regarding the figurative use of this verb here, and related by Sharīf al-Raḍī with appreciation, is worthy of note. Al-Mubarrad writes: ‘The word al-bishārah (good news, glad tidings)‎[10] is derived from al-basharah‎[11] (skin).’‎[12] The plural of basharah is bashar which has, for example, been used in 74:29 to mean the human skin or human flesh which shall be scorched by hellfire.‎[13] He continues: ‘This is as if the informant of glad tidings or bad tidings to another casts into the latter’s heart, in both instances, what causes the effects of the news to manifest on the skin or flesh (basharah) of the latter’s face. So if the tidings are good and joyful, the portents or signs (tabāshīr) of happiness and delight appear on the face of the listener, and if the tidings are bad or unhappy, then signs of grief and sadness manifest on the listener’s face. Consequently, it is appropriate and suitable, on the basis of this meaning, that the word al-bishārah is used equally for news that delights and for news that grieves and saddens [and consequently, it is appropriate for the imperative verb bashshir to be used for grievous news as it is appropriate to be used for delightful news].’‎[14]

EXPOSITION

In this verse God informs of the characteristics of the person described in the previous verse.‎[15] He is willing to spend wealth and to exert effort to purchase diversionary tales and false speech and to disseminate it, but when clear truth comes to him for free, he turns away from it.

Indulgence in diversionary tales, night and day, and at every available opportunity, influences the thinking of a human being as well as his state and consciousness, such that were he to hear something that is different or inconsistent with what he has received via diversionary tales, he becomes incapable of paying attention to the former and appreciating it, having been brainwashed, as it were.‎[16] He thus loathes it, manifesting three states or attributes: he keeps away from it, in pride and arrogance, as God says, And when Our signs (a reference to the Quran)‎[17] are recited to him he turns away while being disdainful and arrogant,‎[18] and secondly he refuses to listen to the Quran’s verses and reflect on them,‎[19] disregarding them,‎[20] as if he had not heard them [at all] while he has in fact heard them.‎[21] Thirdly, this is because the nature that such a person has acquired, due to over-indulgence and immersion in diversionary tales, opposes the divine verses and disagrees with them, as if there is a heaviness in his ears which prohibits him from hearing the truth and appreciating it, as this verse points out, as if there were a deafness in his ears.‎[22] Therefore, just as a deaf person cannot hear in reality, so similarly a person deeply immersed in diversionary tales, by various means, is in fact like a deaf person.‎[23] So this verse describes three attitudes or states that a person, such as described in verses 6-7, manifests when Quranic verses are recited to him. He arrogantly turns away; as if he had not heard the Quranic recitations at all, and as if he were deaf. Consequently, a person such as this has his heart sealed and locked‎[24] (2:18, 2:171, 5:71, 6:39, 8:22, 10:42, 47:23). God’s signs fail to have any effect on those who are thus ‘veiled’ and ‘deaf’, and fail to bring them to belief (2:145, 7:146, 10:96-97). Verse 7 is one of many verses to speak of the various ways in which the disbelievers react to the recitation of the verses of the Quran (8:31, 19:73, 22:72, 23:66-67, 34:43, 45:7-9, 46:7, 68:15, 83:13). The end of such a person is naught save as this verse proclaims: So inform him of a painful punishment.‎[25] This is what God instructs His Prophet to inform the one who possesses such characteristics, which is the threat of a painful punishment,‎[26] conveyed in an ironical way.‎[27] 

[1] Kashif, 6/156; Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 1040.
[2] Tibyan, 8/272; Tabrisi, 8/491; Safi, 4/139; Munyah, 21/125.
[3] Mizan, 16/210.
[4] Tibyan, 8/272; Tabrisi, 8/491; Safi, 4/139; Mizan, 16/210.
[5] Mizan, 16/210.
[6] Mizan, 16/210; Munyah, 21/126.
[7] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 92.
[8] Talkhīṣ al-Bayān, p. 185, cited in Munyah, 21/126.
[9] Talkhīṣ al-Bayān, p. 185, cited in Munyah, 21/126. See also Safi, 4/139-140; Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 93.
[10] Hans Wehr, p. 73.
[11] Talkhīṣ al-Bayān, p. 185, cited in Munyah, 21/126.
[12] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 94.
[13] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 94.
[14] Talkhīṣ al-Bayān, p. 185, cited in Munyah, 21/126.
[15] Tibyan, 8/272.
[16] Munyah, 21/126.
[17] Tibyan, 8/272.
[18] Tabrisi, 8/491; Safi, 4/139; Kashif, 6/156; Munyah, 21/125. 
[19] Tibyan, 8/272.
[20] Tibyan, 8/272; Safi, 4/139.
[21] Tabrisi.J, 3/278
[22] Tibyan, 8/272; Munyah, 21/126.
[23] Munyah, 21/126.
[24] Munyah, 21/126.
[25] Munyah, 21/126.
[26] Tibyan, 8/272; Tabrisi, 8/491.
[27] Safi, 4/139-140.