Tafsir of Al-Hajj 22:46

"Have they not traveled through the land..."

It is possible that they have not traveled, so they are urged to travel in order to see the places where those whom God destroyed for their disbelief perished, and to witness their ruins so that they may take heed.

It is also possible that they have traveled and seen these things but did not take heed, so it is as if they had not traveled and had not seen.

"...so that they may have hearts..."

It is read with a ya (fayakūna lahum qulūbun), meaning: they understand what must be understood of Tawhid (monotheism), and they hear what must be heard of the Revelation.

"...for it is not the eyes that are blind..."

The pronoun (hā) refers to the "matter" or the "situation" (al-sha’n wa al-qiṣṣah); it can be masculine or feminine. In the reading of Ibn Mas‘ud, it is masculine (fa-innahu). It is also permissible for it to be an ambiguous pronoun explained by "the eyes" (al-abṣār), with the pronoun in "blind" (ta‘mā) referring back to it.

The meaning is: their eyes are sound and healthy, having no blindness. The blindness is only in their hearts. Or, the blindness of the eyes is not to be counted, as if it were not blindness at all when compared to the blindness of the hearts.

If you ask: What is the benefit of mentioning "the breasts" (al-ṣudūr)?

I say: It is commonly known and believed that blindness in reality belongs to the eye, occurring when the pupil is afflicted by something that obscures its light. Its use regarding the heart is a metaphor and a simile. When it was intended to establish the opposite of this belief—by attributing blindness to the hearts in reality and denying it of the eyes—this depiction required additional specification and further definition. This is to confirm that the place of blindness is the hearts, not the eyes.

It is like saying: "The sharpness is not for the sword, but for your tongue which is between your jaws." Your saying "which is between your jaws" is a confirmation of what you claimed for the tongue, establishing that the place of sharpness is that and nothing else. It is as if you said: "I did not deny sharpness to the sword and attribute it to your tongue by mistake or oversight, but I intended it for that specific thing deliberately."

"And they urge you to hasten the punishment, but God will not fail in His promise. And indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of those which you count. And how many a city I have given respite while it was committing wrong, then I seized it; and to Me is the [final] destination."