وَجَعَلنا مِن بَينِ أَيديهِم سَدًّا وَمِن خَلفِهِم سَدًّا فَأَغشَيناهُم فَهُم لا يُبصِرونَ

And We have put a barrier before them and a barrier behind them, then We have blindfolded them, so they do not see.

EXEGESIS

A barrier before them and a barrier behind them is a metaphor for all sides, not necessarily only front and back.^{‎[1]Mizan, 17/65.}

Aghshaynāhum (blindfolded them) is from ghishāwah, which is a thin coating or covering that prevents a person from seeing: Allah has set a seal on their hearts and their hearing, and there is a blindfold (ghishāwah) on their sight (2:7).

EXPOSITION

Similar to the previous verse, this verse presents further imagery to indicate that God had prevented them from having further guidance as a form of punishment for their continuous mischief and their choice to remain in denial. The barriers placed in front and behind them could be a reference to the normal consequences of their stubbornness and pride that prevents them from learning lessons from their past or the history of other perverted nations, and from considering the consequences of their manners in future. Their prejudices have covered them from every side, and their misconceptions have blinded them that they cannot see even those glaring realities which are visible to every right-thinking and unbiased person. Have they not regarded that which is before them and that which is behind them of the sky and the earth? If We like, We can make the earth swallow them, or let fall on them a fragment from the sky. There is indeed a sign in that for every penitent servant (34:9).^{‎[2]Tibyan, 8/446.}

Rāzī has a beautiful observation here. In his massive commentary, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb, he says that the hindrances which prevent a person from knowing are either from inside or from outside, and these people are plagued with both. They are fettered and shackled from the inside, and from the outside they are barred and covered. They cannot see the anfusī signs, the signs which are within one’s soul and being, because their heads are upturned and they cannot see themselves; and they are unable to see the āfāqī signs, the signs which are around them, because they are covered from before and behind. The covering from before would prevent them from considering the signs and rational evidence that shows the manifest reality of God, and the covering from behind would prevent them from going back to their fiṭrah, to their inborn nature, and seeking guidance from there.^{‎[3]Razi, 26/255.}

The verse tells us that they are also blindfolded in addition to all these hindrances. This is the example of a person who lives in utter darkness. His life is darkness upon darkness upon darkness, like the manifold darkness in a deep sea, covered by billow upon billow, overcast by clouds, manifold [layers of] darkness, one on top of another: when he brings out his hand, he can hardly see it, and one whom Allah has not granted any light has no light (24:40).

Thus, the meaning of the two verses is that they do not believe because God has prevented them from looking down and placed barriers around them to cover their sight from every side. Thus, they are deprived of being guided, which is a punishment for their choice of rejection, deviation, and transgression.^{‎[4]Mizan, 17/65.} After they have reached this state, the warning becomes useless, as mentioned in the previous verse.

The commentators of the Quran have mentioned different causes for the revelation of these two verses. However, none matches the context in which they are placed, so they are more like the application of the verses rather than the cause of their revelation. The cause of revelation (sabab al-nuzūl) is an incident, a question, or a guideline in a situation which instigates the revelation of a verse or a set of verses. On the other hand, the application of a verse (jary) is when a verse is applied to a situation or is used as an answer to a question after it has already been revealed.

At any rate, what the commentators have reported in this regard is more like the application of the verses rather than the cause for their revelation. For example, Abū Ḥamzah al-Thumālī reports from Mujāhid, from Ibn Abbas: ‘Once, the Quraysh assembled and said among themselves that when Muhammad enters [Masjid al-Ḥarām] we will attack him as one person. The Prophet (s) entered after a while, but Allah put a barrier before them and a barrier behind them so they did not see him. The Prophet (s) finished his prayer and passed by them while he sprinkled dust on their heads, and they were not seeing him. After the Prophet (s) passed, they saw the dust and said: “Muhammad has bewitched us.”’^{‎[5]Tabrisi, 8/650.}

One final note needs to be made here. We said that these two verses describe the situation of the unfaithful, figuratively. However, some scholars such as Tabatabai believe^{‎[6]Mizan, 17/65} that although the metaphorical sense of these verses is in place, there are realities behind them which go beyond the figure of speech, realities that not everyone can understand and fathom. He believes that apart from this life which we apparently see everyone in and see ourselves in, there is another spiritual life for all of us that we are usually unaware of, something which we will only realise after we die. We may be quite intelligent in our ordinary life but quite stupid in our spiritual life. These verses may refer to that spiritual dimension of human life in which some are really and actually blindfolded, fettered, and covered from before and behind, something that we can only see after the veils are lifted. You were certainly unaware of this. We have removed your veil from you, and so your sight is acute today (50:22).

The spiritual dimension of the people mentioned here is in stark opposition to those who believe and continuously do good. Whoever acts righteously, [whether] male or female, should he be faithful, We shall revive him with a good life (16:97). This good life is a life of spiritual sharpness, a life of light, purity, and guidance. If God blesses a believer with this grade of life, they see everything differently and see everything in a new light. With every single atom of this world, they feel God’s presence, the reason behind creation, and the reality of themselves and everything around them, depending on what level of purity they have attained.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. It is reported from Imam al-Bāqir (a): ‘From receiving guidance, God prevented their hearing, sight, hearts [from insight], and their actions from being guided. It was descended in [condemning] Abū Jahl ibn Hishām and a few from his relatives when the Prophet (s) stood to offer his prayers, Abū Jahl ibn Hishām – may God condemn him – had sworn that if he sees him [the Prophet (s)] offering his prayers, he will break his head. So, while the Prophet (s) was praying, he came with a stone, and whenever he raised the stone to strike him, God, the all-mighty and exalted, froze his hands close to his neck, and the stone would not move in his hand. When he returned to his friends, the stone fell from his hands, then another man stood up who was like him as well, and he said: “I will kill him.” But when he went close, he started hearing the recitation of the Messenger of God (s) and got terrified. So, he returned to his fellows and said: “A creature like a stallion came between him and me and started waving his tail [in anger], so I feared to proceed.”’^{‎[7]Nur, 4/377, h. 19.}
2. In a lengthy hadith, Qummī elaborates on the Prophet’s migration from his house in Mecca to the cave and further. He mentions that the messenger of God commanded his bed to be prepared, and then he asked Ali ibn Abī Ṭālib (a): ‘Would you sacrifice yourself for [defending] the Prophet?’ He said: ‘Yes, O Messenger of God.’ Then he said: ‘O Ali, sleep in my bed and cover up with my cloak.’ So, Ali (a) slept in the Prophet’s bed and covered himself with his cloak. After that, Gabriel came and held the hand of the Messenger of God and took him out through the Quraysh while they were sleeping, and he was reciting, And We have put a barrier before them and a barrier behind them, then We have blindfolded them, so they do not see.^{‎[8]Nur, 4/377, h. 21.}
3. When a disbeliever asked Imam al-Riḍā (a) about the reason for God’s concealment from His creation, the Imam said: ‘Verily His concealment from the creation is due to the abundance of their sins.’^{‎[9]Tawhid, 3/252; Muhammad Rayshahri, Mīzān al-Ḥikmah, 3/1908.}
4. In the supplications reported by Abū Ḥamzah al-Thumālī, Imam al-Sajjād (a) says: ‘[O God], You do not conceal Yourself from Your creation, except that their deeds conceal them from You.’^{‎[10]Iqbal, pp. 348-350; Muhammad Rayshahri, Mīzān al-Ḥikmah, 3/1908.}

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

In many instances, the narrations indicate that when the polytheists approached the Holy Prophet to hurt him, they did not see him, or some type of blindness took them over. Thus, God protected him from their plots. However, Suyūṭī believes that after examining the context of the verses, they are not in line with those narrations; the context is all about two groups of people: the wicked ones, on whom the punishment has become inevitable, and the righteous ones who are rewarded, as indicated in verses 7-11. Therefore, according to him, the narrations that indicate the cause of the revelation of the first twelve verses cause disruption in the context of the surah. Nevertheless, there is no issue in considering the applicability of the narrations indicating that the Prophet was protected from his enemies without considering those narrations as the cause of revelation for these verses.^{‎[11]Suyuti, 5/259.} Thus, these narrations do not restrict the general concept that the verses try to covey.

There are other interpretive probabilities about the barriers mentioned in this verse. The first probability is that the barrier in the front prevents them from being guided in the future, and the barrier behind prevents them from the internal guidance innately embedded in every human. The second probability is that they are prevented from comprehending the hereafter in the future and God’s creation and their origin in the past.

The third probability is that this is about Resurrection Day. There is a barrier between them and the path to paradise in front of them, and a barrier between them and going back to this world behind them.^{‎[12]Muhammad al-Amīn al-Shinqīṭī, Aḍwāʾ al-Bayān fī Īḍāḥ al-Qurʾān bil-Qurʾān, (DKI Beirut, 2006), 6/424.} Based on this probability, it seems that when the wicked ones are on their way to hell, they will try to seek a path in front of them to paradise or a way out of the path of hell; however, they would find the path in front blocked; consequently, they would look back to seek a path from behind to go back to the world, but they would also find a barrier blocking that too. Therefore, they are stuck between those two barriers (23:99-100).

Rāzī asks why the barriers were mentioned from front and back, and not the right and the left. In response, he mentions that if the blindness is from the natural guidance embedded in the humans from the past (behind) or the theoretical guidance which comes from observing the creation from the front, then mentioning the back and the front is quite appropriate. However, since the barriers cause blindness, the person becomes stuck between them and cannot move in any direction, neither right nor left; therefore, the right and left are also included in the meaning.^{‎[13]Razi, 26/256.}

Māwardī opines that the blindness which overtook them was on the night of migration when the Holy Prophet went past them yet they could not see him.^{‎[14]Māwardī, al-Nukat wa al-ʿUyūn, (DKI Beirut, 1992), 5/9.}

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

1. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly … Then, the angel of God, who had been travelling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel.^{‎[15]Exodus 14:8, 19-20.}
2. You have seen many things, but you pay no attention; your ears are open, but you do not listen.’^{‎[16]Isaiah 42:20-25.}

[1] Mizan, 17/65.
[2] Tibyan, 8/446.
[3] Razi, 26/255.
[4] Mizan, 17/65.
[5] Tabrisi, 8/650.
[6] Mizan, 17/65
[7] Nur, 4/377, h. 19.
[8] Nur, 4/377, h. 21.
[9] Tawhid, 3/252; Muhammad Rayshahri, Mīzān al-Ḥikmah, 3/1908.
[10] Iqbal, pp. 348-350; Muhammad Rayshahri, Mīzān al-Ḥikmah, 3/1908.
[11] Suyuti, 5/259.
[12] Muhammad al-Amīn al-Shinqīṭī, Aḍwāʾ al-Bayān fī Īḍāḥ al-Qurʾān bil-Qurʾān, (DKI Beirut, 2006), 6/424.
[13] Razi, 26/256.
[14] Māwardī, al-Nukat wa al-ʿUyūn, (DKI Beirut, 1992), 5/9.
[15] Exodus 14:8, 19-20.
[16] Isaiah 42:20-25.