Waqaloo quloobuna ghulfun bal laAAanahumu Allahu bikufrihim faqaleelan ma yuminoona
English
Ahmed Ali
And they say: "Our hearts are enfolded in covers." In fact God has cursed them for their unbelief; and only a little do they believe.
88
Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (and they say) i.e. the jews: (our hearts are hardened) vis-à-vis what you say, o muhammad, i.e. our hearts are capable of absorbing any knowledge, but they prove incapable of comprehending your knowledge or what you say. (nay) this is a reply to them, (but allah hath cursed them) sealed their hearts (for their disbelief) as a punishment for their disbelief. (little is that which they believe) they believe neither much nor a little; it is also said that this means: they do not believe in what you say at all.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : and they say, to the prophet mockingly: ‘our hearts are encased’ (ghulf is the plural of aghlaf), that is to say, wrapped up in covers and cannot comprehend what you say; god, exalted be he, says: nay (bal introduces the rebuttal), but god has cursed them, removed them far from his mercy and degraded them when they rejected [the messengers], for their unbelief, which is not the result of anything defective in their hearts; and little will they believe (fa-qalīlan mā yu’minūn: the mā here is extra, emphasising the ‘littleness’ involved): that is, their belief is minimal.
