And when he completed the descriptions of the two groups and their recompense, he struck a parable for both by saying: "The example of the two groups" meaning the disbelievers and the believers. This is from the category of [al-laf] and the arranged [al-nashr]. For the disbeliever was mentioned first in what preceded: "like the blind" meaning the general blindness in his sight and insight, "and the deaf" likewise in his hearing. This is for the disbelievers. "And the seeing" with his eye and heart, "and the hearing" in the most complete of their states. This is for the believers. And in the particulars of the parable, there is also contrast: "Are they equal?" meaning the two groups, "as an example" meaning: from the perspective of the example. And when the answer is certainly clear to anyone who has the slightest reflection: they do not equal in example, so they do not equal in what is exemplified. It is appropriate for the cause of denial from him in his saying: "Do you not remember?" meaning: you will attain the slightest remembrance by what the merging indicates, so you may know the truth of what they have been described with by what you see of their states. And that is what was presented regarding the disbelievers in his saying: "What they were able to hear" [Hud: 20] the verse. And al-ikhbat is the continuous humility in which there is equality, and its origin is the equality from al-khabt, which is the flat, wide land. And perhaps he connected it with: "to" in the place of the lam as an indication of sincerity; meaning: humility that reaches to their Lord without being veiled from Him. And the example is a common saying in which the condition of the second is likened to the condition of the first, and examples do not change from their forms.