Then he explained this which the context guided to its estimation, or he began for one who asks, astonished about their stopping from the clear truth by saying: "Indeed, you do not make the dead hear." That is: you do not create hearing for those who are like the dead in their inability to benefit from their senses which are in utmost soundness, and when they hear the signs, they turn away from them.

And since likening them to the dead is despairing, he said, hoping: "And you do not make the deaf hear the call." That is: you do not renew that for them. So he likened them to what is in the essence of their creation, which they were created upon, of stubbornness and bad nature, to the deaf.

And since they had combined to that aversion and repulsion, they became like the deaf who turns away. And the deaf, if he approaches, perhaps with the help of his sight and understanding, he said: "When they turn away, turning their backs." He hoped for the possibility of making them hear if a state from Allah occurred that would be accepted by their hearts.