And when He threatened them with matters of the Hereafter, He indicated His ability to do so in both realms by His saying: ﴿Those﴾ meaning the far ones from the presence of mercy ﴿will not be﴾ meaning: in any way ﴿able to overwhelm﴾. And He indicated their inability by stating that they cannot reach the higher world by His saying: ﴿on the earth﴾ meaning: the ability to overwhelm— which is the inability to fulfill the will of Allah— was not for them, nor is it within their power, because His power over all possibilities is equal.

And when He negated the inability from themselves, He negated it from the perspective of others by saying: ﴿And it is not for them﴾. And since the ranks that are below His greatness, glorified and exalted is He, are indeed very numerous, He clarified that they are excluded from each of them by affirming the preposition, saying: ﴿besides Allah﴾ meaning the greatest King. And He intensified the negation by saying: ﴿of allies﴾ meaning: they do with them what the close ones do in managing interests and protecting from calamities. And whoever could not prevent while alive did not prevent after his death. So it was as if it was said: What will be done with them? It was said: ﴿They will be doubled﴾ meaning: it will be done to them as one who debates another in increase. And He built it for the passive form because the reference to the existence of the doubling is absolute. ﴿For them is the punishment﴾ meaning: for what they used to double in sins; then He explained the reason for the doubling by stating that He created for them hearing and sight, but they wasted them by their deafness to the truth and their blindness to it. So there is no difference between them and one who lacks them. He said: ﴿What they were﴾ meaning: by what they have of corrupt natures.

﴿They are not able to hear﴾ meaning: they cannot due to what has overwhelmed their original sound natures by their submission to desires from the defects of appetites, so that His obedience may exist for them. Thus, they were not hearing. ﴿And they were not able to see﴾ so they were not ﴿seeing﴾ until they turn away from desires, so that their ability to hear [and see] may exist. This is a metaphor for their rejection of the truth, and that their intense aversion to it has reached a point where they are described as lacking the ability, just as a person says when his aversion to something intensifies: This is something I cannot hear. And the doubling is due to disbelief and obstruction, and the negation of ability is more profound in blame and more indicative of deficiency and more severe than the negation of hearing, because they may attribute it to response. As for the negation of sight, it is not separate from deficiency, whether it is for the eye or for the heart. This is unless the verse is interpreted as a figure of speech; if it is interpreted as such, both matters are equal, and the negation of ability first indicates its negation second, and the negation of sight indicates the negation of hearing first.