Sometimes you listen to something and do not understand it. Not because the words are foreign: what is being said lies far from your frame of thought, so it arrives as strange — and if you have no interest, you do not try. The same may happen with a message from beyond. It does happen.
Midian's Answer — “We do not grasp”
In Hūd — an Alif-Lām-Rā sura — the people of Midian said this to Shuʿayb (peace be upon him), sent from among themselves:
قَالُوا يَا شُعَيْبُ مَا نَفْقَهُ۬ كَثِيراً مِمَّا تَقُولُ وَاِنَّا لَنَرٰيكَ فِينَا ضَعِيفاً وَلَوْلَا رَهْطُكَ لَرَجَمْنَاكَ وَمٓا اَنْتَ عَلَيْنَا بِعَزِيزٍ
“O Shuʿayb, we do not grasp much of what you say (faqiha). Indeed we see you as weak among us. Were it not for your kin we would have stoned you. You hold no power over us.”
This failure of perception is not a deficiency of intelligence; they are locked inside an epistemic cage.
The Shell, the Weight, the Veil
The opening of Fuṣṣilat — a Ḥā-Mīm sura — describes it:
بَشِيراً وَنَذِيراً فَاَعْرَضَ اَكْثَرُهُمْ فَهُمْ لَا يَسْمَعُونَ
“…as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner. Yet most turned away; they will not listen.”
وَقَالُوا قُلُوبُنَا فِٓي اَكِنَّةٍ مِمَّا تَدْعُونٓا اِلَيْهِ وَفِٓي اٰذَانِنَا وَقْرٌ وَمِنْ بَيْنِنَا وَبَيْنِكَ حِجَابٌ فَاعْمَلْ اِنَّـنَا عَامِلُونَ
“They said: our hearts are under coverings (akinna) against what you call us to, in our ears is a heaviness (waqr), and between us and you a veil (ḥijāb). So act — we too are acting.”
The opening of al-Jāthiya, also a Ḥā-Mīm sura and parallel to Fuṣṣilat's, carries a similar message:
يَسْمَعُ اٰيَاتِ اللّٰهِ تُتْلٰى عَلَيْهِ ثُمَّ يُصِرُّ مُسْتَكْبِراً كَاَنْ لَمْ يَسْمَعْهَا فَبَشِّرْهُ بِعَذَابٍ اَلِيمٍ
“He hears God's verses recited to him, then persists arrogantly as though he never heard them. So give him tidings of a painful punishment.”
Akinna — the word for the hearts being shelled, held inside a vessel — denotes at root that within which a thing is kept, hidden, concealed: a shelter, a refuge, a screen, a house, a canopy. Hence kanantu'sh-shay'a kannan, to hide a thing in a place that protects it. The verb is used especially of what is covered by a house, a garment, and the like. (al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, al-Mufradāt)
The shell is not there to protect the heart from without — it is there to keep meaning from entering.
When the Field of Interest Shifts
When a person's field of interest shifts entirely, the message becomes wholly foreign to him. Al-Isrāʾ and al-Anʿām — both Alḥamdulillāh suras — take up the same matter:
وَاِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرْاٰنَ جَعَلْنَا بَيْنَكَ وَبَيْنَ الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْاٰخِرَةِ حِجَاباً مَسْتُوراً
“When you recite the Qur'an, We place between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter a concealed veil.”
وَجَعَلْنَا عَلٰى قُلُوبِهِمْ اَكِنَّةً اَنْ يَفْقَهُوهُ وَفِٓي اٰذَانِهِمْ وَقْراً وَاِذَا ذَكَرْتَ رَبَّكَ فِي الْقُرْاٰنِ وَحْدَهُ وَلَّوْا عَلٰٓى اَدْبَارِهِمْ نُفُوراً
“And We placed upon their hearts coverings, lest they understand it, and in their ears a heaviness…”
وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَسْتَمِعُ اِلَيْكَ وَجَعَلْنَا عَلٰى قُلُوبِهِمْ اَكِنَّةً اَنْ يَفْقَهُوهُ وَفِٓي اٰذَانِهِمْ وَقْراً وَاِنْ يَرَوْا كُلَّ اٰيَةٍ لَا يُؤْمِنُوا بِهَا حَتّٰٓى اِذَا جٓاؤُ۫كَ يُجَادِلُونَكَ يَقُولُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرٓوا اِنْ هٰذٓا اِلّٓا اَسَاطِيرُ الْاَوَّلِينَ
“Among them are those who listen to you — yet We placed coverings on their hearts lest they understand it… they say: this is nothing but the legends of the ancients.”
So What Is the Cause?
This reading raises a question: what leads hearts to be shelled, perceptions to close? Al-Kahf — again an Alḥamdulillāh sura — answers:
وَمَا نُرْسِلُ الْمُرْسَلِينَ اِلَّا مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنْذِرِينَ وَيُجَادِلُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِالْبَاطِلِ لِيُدْحِضُوا بِهِ الْحَقَّ وَاتَّخَذٓوا اٰيَاتِي وَمٓا اُنْذِرُوا هُزُواً
“We send the messengers only as bearers of glad tidings and warners. Yet those who reject dispute with falsehood to refute the truth, and take My signs and warnings in mockery.”
وَمَنْ اَظْلَمُ مِمَّنْ ذُكِّرَ بِاٰيَاتِ رَبِّهِ فَاَعْرَضَ عَنْهَا وَنَسِيَ مَا قَدَّمَتْ يَدَاهُ اِنَّا جَعَلْنَا عَلٰى قُلُوبِهِمْ اَكِنَّةً اَنْ يَفْقَهُوهُ وَفِٓي اٰذَانِهِمْ وَقْراً وَاِنْ تَدْعُهُمْ اِلَى الْهُدٰى فَلَنْ يَهْتَدٓوا اِذاً اَبَداً
“Who is more unjust than one reminded of his Lord's signs who turns away and forgets what his hands sent forth? We have placed coverings on their hearts lest they understand it, and heaviness in their ears…”
To refute truth with falsehood is to set reality and ontological ground against assumptions and imaginings, then declare them void. Taking the message lightly, they say: “this is in the legends of the ancients — Egypt, Greece, Sumer, Akkad, the Torah — it was borrowed from there.” They do not take the matter seriously enough even to weigh the confounder: that the same Creator may have sent the same message repeatedly through history — which is precisely what the Qur'an says of itself.
Then, again in a mocking register: “if God is capable of all things, why not hand down a written book at once instead of piecemeal over twenty-three years?” or “why not send an angel directly?” — sophistry, disputation. Yet:
وَلَوْ نَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ كِتَاباً فِي قِرْطَاسٍ فَلَمَسُوهُ بِاَيْدِيهِمْ لَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرٓوا اِنْ هٰذٓا اِلَّا سِحْرٌ مُبِينٌ
“Had We sent down to you a book on paper, and had they touched it with their hands, those who reject would still say: this is nothing but plain sorcery.”
وَقَالُوا لَوْلٓا اُنْزِلَ عَلَيْهِ مَلَكٌ وَلَوْ اَنْزَلْنَا مَلَكاً لَقُضِيَ الْاَمْرُ ثُمَّ لَا يُنْظَرُونَ
“They say: why was an angel not sent down to him? Had We sent an angel, the matter would have been decided, and they would be given no respite.”
وَلَوْ جَعَلْنَاهُ مَلَكاً لَجَعَلْنَاهُ رَجُلاً وَلَلَبَسْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ مَا يَلْبِسُونَ
“Had We made him an angel, We would have made him a man, and confounded them again in the very confusion they are in.”
وَلَقَدِ اسْتُهْزِئَ بِرُسُلٍ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ فَحَاقَ بِالَّذِينَ سَخِرُوا مِنْهُمْ مَا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِؤُ۫نَ۟
“Messengers before you were mocked; but those who scoffed were encompassed by the very thing they mocked.”
Those who take this stance remain inside their own assumptions. Because they will not show humility before the laws at work in the cosmos — will not say “there is much I do not know; perhaps my assumptions are wrong” — they are locked in the epistemic cage. There is a shell upon their hearts.
Understanding closes by way of belittling the message without questioning one's assumptions — and setting out to fight it.
The Opening of al-Baqara — the Same Subject
The opening of al-Baqara — an Alif-Lām-Mīm sura — takes up the same matter. Whether you warn them or not, they will not believe (2:6). There is a seal on their hearts and their hearing, and a covering over their eyes (2:7). Saying “we believe in God and the Last Day,” they think they deceive God and the believers, but deceive only themselves without perceiving it (2:8-9). In their hearts is a disease of duplicity, and God increases it by that very disease (2:10).
As that duplicity deepens: told “what you do is wrong, do not spread corruption,” they consider themselves reformers — reasoning that within the flow of ḥayāt al-dunyā they produce economic value in the capitalist order. The heart's disease runs so deep that they do not perceive they are partisans of ruin (2:11-12). Told “believe as the people believe,” elitist pride answers: “shall we believe as the foolish believe?” The very posture makes them the foolish ones, unperceived (2:13).
Such thinking is itself irritated by these statements — for a teaching that levels the shepherd on the mountain with oneself before God unsettles one's whole value system. Meeting the believers he looks down on, he talks, exchanges pleasantries, signals “we believe too.” Yet inwardly, or among companions of his own kind, he says: “we are only mocking them” (2:14). Seen from a wider frame, it is this very posture that has made them the object of mockery; they flounder in transgression, going nowhere (2:15).
You Can Make Only the Believers Hear
وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَسْتَمِعُونَ اِلَيْكَ اَفَاَنْتَ تُسْمِـعُ الصُّمَّ وَلَوْ كَانُوا لَا يَعْقِلُونَ
“Among them are those who listen to you. But can you make the deaf hear, when they do not use reason?”
وَمٓا اَنْتَ بِهَادِي الْعُمْيِ عَنْ ضَلَالَتِهِمْ اِنْ تُسْمِــعُ اِلَّا مَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِاٰيَاتِنَا فَهُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
“Nor can you guide the blind out of their error. You can make only those hear who believe in Our signs — those who have surrendered.”
فَاِنَّكَ لَا تُسْمِعُ الْمَوْتٰى وَلَا تُسْمِعُ الصُّمَّ الدُّعٓاءَ اِذَا وَلَّوْا مُدْبِرِينَ
“You cannot make the dead hear, nor the deaf hear the call when they turn away in retreat.”
وَمٓا اَنْـتَ بِهَادِ الْعُمْيِ عَنْ ضَلَالَتِهِمْ اِنْ تُسْمِعُ اِلَّا مَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِاٰيَاتِنَا فَهُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ۟
“Nor can you guide the blind out of their error. You can make hear only those who believe in Our signs and have surrendered.”
اَفَاَنْتَ تُسْمِــعُ الصُّمَّ اَوْ تَهْدِي الْعُمْيَ وَمَنْ كَانَ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُبِينٍ
“Can you make the deaf hear, or guide the blind — or one sunk in manifest error?”