And when he informed about their turning away, he informed about their distancing in it, so he said: ﴿And they said﴾, meaning: at their turning away, representing their distancing in not accepting it: ﴿Our hearts are in coverings﴾, meaning: enveloping veils around them. And since the context in Al-Kahf is for greatness, it was more appropriate for it to be an instrument of elevation, so he said: ﴿Indeed, We have placed veils upon their hearts﴾ [Al-Kahf: 57]. And they expressed here with the adverb to distance them from hearing ﴿from what﴾, meaning: beginning those veils and arising from the matter which ﴿you call us﴾, O you who informs that he is a prophet ﴿to Him﴾, so there is no way for him to reach it to deny it altogether.

And when the heart is more understanding of what comes to it from the direction of hearing, they said: ﴿And in our ears﴾, which is one of the paths leading to the hearts, ﴿is heaviness﴾, meaning: it has become heavy, which has deafened it from hearing ﴿and between us and you﴾, meaning: (p-143) and beginning from the boundary that has separated you from us and the boundary that has separated us from you in the middle of the distance, there is ﴿a barrier﴾, a thick covering. So we do not see you to understand from you by indication, thus the paths of understanding what we say have closed. ﴿So work﴾ [meaning]: with what you are committed to. And since the repetition of admonition is a place of hope for the return of the admonished, they cut off that hope with the affirmation of its instrument, and they increased it with the third ن and the expression with the nominal form, so they said: ﴿Indeed, we are working﴾, meaning: with what we are committed to, so there is no connection between us in any way that one of us should feel shy of the other in his action or return to him. And if he had said: (and between us) without (from), it would have been understood that the two boundaries are both a barrier. Thus, each of the two groups would be adjacent to its boundary, which is half the gap that exists between him and his opponent. At that time, each group would be confined by its barrier, unable to act among us in what follows, or there would be a connection between them, at least by informing about the way of whoever wanted from the two differing parties the barrier. So, (from) indicated partitive along with the indication of beginning, for they do not affirm the barrier in matters other than religion.