those disbelievers whose eyes alladhīna kānat a‘yunuhum substitutes for al-kāfirīna ‘the disbelievers’ were masked from My remembrance namely the Qur’ān such that they were blind unable to be guided thereby and who could not bear to hear that is to say they were unable to listen to what the Prophet used to recite to them out of spite for him and so they did not believe therein.