The lightning well-nigh snatches away their sight; whensoever it gives them light they walk in it; and when the darkness is over them; they stop; had God willed He would have taken away their hearing and sight; Truly God has power over all things. Part of the similitude of the hypocrites-as also the heedless-is that when they are present at public sermons or their hearts incline to gentleness or some terror overwhelms them their states move closer to repentance and their longing to turn [to God] becomes stronger. But when they revert to their own planning and seek counsel from those close to them their fam- ily and offspring urge them to return to their world. They offer their advice frightening them with weakness and dependency so that their resolve becomes weak their spiritual desire irāda declines and they become as it is said: Whenever he repents he returns to his ignorance just as the one who is feeble suffers a relapse. He said “had God willed He would have taken away their hearing and sight” meaning the outward hearing and seeing of the hypocrites as well as their being deaf and blind inwardly. The same [is true] for the heedless and those who are content with the external aspects of Islam-God most high has the power to negate the positive outcome tawfīq of their practice of outward acts of obedience ẓāhir al-Ṭāʿāt just as He has the power to negate the realization taḥqīq of what they have discovered from the most felicitous states ṣafāÌ al-ḥālāt.
