16أُولٰئِكَ الَّذينَ اشتَرَوُا الضَّلالَةَ بِالهُدىٰ فَما رَبِحَت تِجارَتُهُم وَما كانوا مُهتَدينَUzunoglu et al.These are the people who have purchased error at the price of guidance, but their trade is profitless, and they are not rightly-guided.1Having announced at the beginning of this sūrah that the Qur’ān is without doubt the Book and the guidance, Allah proceeds to categorize mankind into three main types according to their attitudes to faith.The believers, whose attributes are discussed in the first five verses of the sūrah.The disbelievers, whose attributes are discussed in the sixth and seventh verses.The hypocrites, whose attributes, are discussed in detail from verses eight to twenty-one.Because the Qur’ān is the Book which was revealed to help mankind tread the Straight Path, its subject matter is Man, his beliefs and behavior, in all its correct and incorrect aspects. An explanation is given of the consequences of the belief that Man chooses and adopts. In reading the Qur’ān, one must always keep in mind the fact that the Speaker is the Almighty Himself. Sometimes He lets His creation speak also, and sometimes He punctuates the text with examples for our reflection.