(17:45) When you recite the Qur'an, We place a hidden barrier between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter;

(17:46) and We place a covering on their hearts so that they do not comprehend it, and We cause a heaviness in their ears;⁵¹ and when you mention your Lord, the Only True Lord, in the Qur'an, they turn their backs in aversion.⁵²

51, When a man denies the Hereafter, it naturally leads to his heart being sealed, and his ears becoming incapable of heeding the message of the Qur’an. For, the very cornerstone of the Qur’anic message to man is that he should not be deceived by the external manifestations of this worldly life. For, even if we do not observe anyone calling people to account, this should not mislead us into believing that man is not accountable to anyone. Likewise, we also observe that people freely choose to become polytheists, atheists and monotheists, and the consequences of such a choice seemingly remain much the same as far as the present world is concerned.

This should not, however, give rise to the misconception that there are no ultimate consequences of making right or wrong choices. People have been granted the freedom to act in the world as they wish, as a result of this freedom, some immerse themselves in sin and evil while others live in righteousness and piety. Now so far as this worldly life is concerned, righteousness does not always lead to felicitous results, nor does evil always lead to misery and suffering. This should not, however, lead us to the false notion that no moral law exists, or that actions will not have their natural results. The fundamental truth is that accountability will certainly take place and that man will bear the consequence of his actions. All this, however, will happen in the Next Life. It is true that man has been given the freedom to choose whichever. doctrine he likes, be it monotheism or polytheism or atheism. This freedom should not give rise to the misunderstanding that all doctrines — monotheism, polytheism and atheism — are of equal value, and that they will ultimately lead to much the same results. It should be clearly understood that monotheism is the only sound and correct doctrine and that all other doctrines are false. Likewise, the worldly consequences of righteous and evil behavior might not be very conspicuously different. But all this is illusory since the true consequences of the attitudes man adopts will surface in the Hereafter. There the truth, which is bound to remain hidden in the present world, will be fully unveiled. For there does certainly exist a moral law according to which sin and evil are harmful whereas obedience to God is beneficial. However, the judgements according to this law will only be passed in the Life to Come.

Thus, there is no reason for man to be overly enamored of the life of this world. Nor should man rely on the deceptive consequences that come to the surface in the course of this transient phase of his existence. Instead, he should keep his eyes focused on his ultimate accountability before God and should adopt the benefits and practices that will see him through the test of the Hereafter and thereby to success.

This is what the Qur’an invites man to. It is quite obvious that those who altogether reject the Hereafter and place their reliance solely on the phenomenal world, and who rely on nothing else but sense perception and experience, will never be inclined to see the point of the Qur’anic message. The Qur'anic message will reach their ears, but will not penetrate their hearts. This is the truth which is stated here. Furthermore, it is the enunciation of a natural law which operates in the manner stated above and in respect of a certain type of person.

It should also be noted that the present verse recounts a statement that the Makkan unbelievers proudly and frequently made. ‘They say: ‘‘Our hearts are under veils, (concealed) from that to which you invite us, and in our ears: is a deafness, and between us and you is a screen: so do (what you will); as for us we shall do (what we will!) (Fussilat 41: 5), This contention is taken over by the Qur’ an and turned against them. Repeating their utterance, the Qur’an advises the Makkan unbelievers that what they proudly extol as their virtue is indeed a curse which has been inflicted upon them — in accordance with natural law and as a result of their denial of the Hereafter.

52. The unbelievers of Makka found that the Prophet (peace be on him) regarded God as the only true Lord, to the exclusion of all other deities. It was intolerable for them that the Prophet (peace be on him) should talk only about. God without waxing lyrical about the supernatural powers of saints and holy: _men and without paying tribute to those who, in the popular view, had been _ granted a part of God’s power and authority by God Himself. They were ‘astonished that a person should believe that “Sod — and He alone — possessed virtually everything — full knowledge of the realm beyond the ken of sense-perception, absolute power to do as He pleased, and total control over ~ everything. It was inconceivable to them that someone should pay no heed to the saints by dint of whose grace people were granted offspring, the sick was healed, sagging businesses began to flourish, and all wishes were fulfilled. (For. further elaboration see al-Zumar 39: 45, n. 64.)