لُقْمَان : ٧

  • وَإِذَا And when
  • تُتۡلَىٰ are recited
  • عَلَيۡهِ to him
  • ءَايَٰتُنَا Our Verses
  • وَلَّىٰ he turns away
  • مُسۡتَكۡبِرٗا arrogantly
  • كَأَن as if
  • لَّمۡ not
  • يَسۡمَعۡهَا he (had) heard them
  • كَأَنَّ as if
  • فِيٓ in
  • أُذُنَيۡهِ his ears
  • وَقۡرٗاۖ (is) deafness
  • فَبَشِّرۡهُ So give him tidings
  • بِعَذَابٍ of a punishment
  • أَلِيمٍ painful
And when Our verses are recited to him, he turns away arrogantly as if he had not heard them, as if there was in his ears deafness. So give him tidings of a painful punishment.
And when Our signs, in other words, [in] Al-Qur'an, are recited to such [a one] he turns away disdainfully as though he never heard them, as though there were a deafness in his ears (both comparisons constitute two circumstantial qualifiers referring to the subject of [the verb] wallaa, 'turns away'; or it is that the second [comparison] is an explication of the first). So give him tidings of, inform him of, a painful chastisement. The use of [the expression] 'good tidings' meant derisively against such [a person] - this was al-Nadr ibn al-Haarith. He used to visit al-Heera for commerce and purchase books containing the stories of the non-Arab peoples and then recount these to the people of Mecca. He would say, 'Muhammad recounts to you the stories of 'aad and Thamood, whereas I relate to you the stories of the Persians and the Byzantines!' They would thus [go to] enjoy his stories and neglect to listen to Al-Qur'an.