The likeness of those who were entrusted with the Torah, those who were charged with implementing it, then failed to uphold it, [then] failed to act in accordance with it, in what pertains to the descriptions of the Prophet (s), and so did not believe in him, is as the likeness of an ass carrying books, in that it does not benefit from them. Evil is the likeness of the people who deny God’s signs, those confirming the truth of the Prophet (s) — (the object of rebuke is omitted but is implied to be hādhā’l-mathalu, ‘this likeness’). And God does not guide the evildoing folk, the disbelievers.
