'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' He, exalted is He, said: ﴿Indeed, We have placed shackles upon their necks, so they are up to their chins, and they are made to look up﴾ ﴿And We have placed before them a barrier and behind them a barrier, and We have covered them, so they do not see﴾. Al-Makki said: This is a reality in the affairs of the Hereafter when they enter the Fire. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿'So We have covered them'﴾ weakens this statement, because the sight of the disbeliever on the Day of Resurrection is indeed sharp; he sees the ugliness of his state. Al-Dhahak said: Its meaning is: We have prevented them from spending in the way of Allah, as He, exalted is He, said: ﴿And do not make your hand tied to your neck﴾ [Al-Isra: 29]. Ibn Abbas and Ibn Ishaq said: It is a metaphor for the state of the disbelievers who intended harm against Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, so Allah, exalted is He, made this an example for them in stopping their harm against him when they plotted against him. Ikrimah said: It was revealed when Abu Jahl intended to strike him with a large stone, and Allah prevented him from it, and in other instances. A group said: The verse is a metaphor for Allah, exalted is He, preventing them and placing a barrier between them and Him. This is the most plausible of the statements, because when He mentioned that they do not believe in what has preceded for them in eternity, He followed that by stating that He has placed for them of prevention and the encompassing of misery what makes their state with Him like that of the defeated. And 'the shackle' is what encircles the neck, meaning constriction, fixation, torment, and captivity. Along with the neck are the hands or one hand. This is the meaning of being shackled. And His saying: 'So they are' can return to the shackles, meaning: they are wide and reach with their edge to the chins, and the chin is the meeting place of the two jaws, so the shackled one is forced to raise his face towards the sky, and that is what is meant by looking up, and it is similar to the act of a human or an animal when drinking cold water and when facing salty and strong sourness, and so on. It is also possible - and this is the saying of Al-Tabari - that 'it' refers to the hands - even though there is no prior mention of them - due to the clarity of its place in the meaning, and that is because the shackle is only in the neck with the two hands. It has been narrated in the (p-236) Mus'haf of Ibn Mas'ud and Abu: [Indeed, We have placed in their right hands], and in some of them [in their hands], and we have mentioned the meaning of looking up. Al-Qatadah said: The one looking up is the one raising his head. He also said: ﴿'Looking up'﴾ means they are shackled from all good. And I see that Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, showed the people how to look up, placing his hands under his jaws and pressing them together and raising his head. The majority read: 'a barrier' with the 's' raised in both instances. Hamzah, Al-Kisai, and Hafs from Asim, Ibn Mas'ud, Talhah, Ibn Wathab, Ikrimah, Al-Nakha'i, and Ibn Kathir read it with the 's' opened in both instances. Abu Ali said: A group said: They are of one meaning, meaning: a barrier that blocks their path. Ikrimah said: What is done by humans is with the 's' closed, and what is a creation is with the 's' opened. And 'the barrier' is what blocks and prevents, and from it is the saying of the Bedouin regarding the description of a cloud: 'A barrier has risen with the spreading of the child,' meaning: a cloud that blocked the horizon. And from it is their saying: 'A locust swarm is a barrier.' And the meaning of the verse is that the path of guidance is blocked from them.

And the majority of the people read: "So We covered their eyes" with a diacritical mark, meaning: We placed a veil over their eyes. Ibn Abbas, Ikrimah, Ibn Yamur, Umar ibn Abdul Aziz, Al-Nakha'i, and Ibn Sirin read it with the letter 'ain unmarked, and it was narrated from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and it is from the evening, meaning: We weakened their sight. The meaning is: They do not see guidance or righteousness. Yazid Al-Yazidi read: "So I covered them" with a 'ya' without an 'alif' and with the 'ghain' marked.