God is not ashamed, He is not prohibited by what would [normally] prohibit the one who experiences shame, to strike a similitude even of a gnat, or anything above it, for in the eyes of God the disbeliever is lowlier than a gnat and this world [lowlier] than its wings, as stated by the ḥadīth. [as for the believers, they know] it is the truth from their Lord, because of the interrelationship between the thing struck as similitude and the one for whom the similitude has been struck; [but as for disbelievers, they say, 'What did God desire by this for a similitudeḍ' Thereby He leads many astray and thereby He guides many]; and thereby He leads none astray except the wicked, those who have departed from the station of the heart to the station of the soul and from obedience to the Compassionate to obedience of Satan, being the second group among the wretched ones and not the first group, for they are in error with regard the same matter in any case neither because of it [the similitude[ or because of any other reason. Their being led into error thereby [i.e. by the similitude struck] is caused by their wickedness in reality, since the fact that the ruling follows from the description gives the impression of it [the description] being the cause, and that is their increasing obstinacy, their denial, their spitefulness and the overpowering of their hearts by the attributes of their souls upon the mention of the QurÌān, increasing their distance and [increasing them] in darkness upon darkness.
