The Quran

يَكادُ البَرقُ يَخطَفُ أَبصارَهُم ۖ كُلَّما أَضاءَ لَهُم مَشَوا فيهِ وَإِذا أَظلَمَ عَلَيهِم قاموا ۚ وَلَو شاءَ اللَّهُ لَذَهَبَ بِسَمعِهِم وَأَبصارِهِم ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلىٰ كُلِّ شَيءٍ قَديرٌ

Muhammad Asad

The lightning well-nigh takes away their sight; whenever it gives them light, they advance therein, and whenever darkness falls around them, they stand still. And if God so willed, He could indeed take away their hearing and their sight:¹ for, verily, God has the power to will anything.

The obvious implication is: "but He does not will this" - that is, He does not preclude the possibility that "those who have taken error in exchange for guidance" may one day perceive the truth and mend their ways. The expression "their hearing and their sight" is obviously a metonym for man's instinctive ability to discern between good and evil and, hence, for his moral responsibility. - In the parable of the "people who kindle a fire" we have, I believe, an allusion to some people's exclusive reliance on what is termed the "scientific approach" as a means to illumine and explain all the imponderables of life and faith, and the resulting arrogant refusal to admit that anything could be beyond the reach of man's intellect. This "overweening arrogance", as the Qur'an terms it, unavoidably exposes its devotees - and the society dominated by them - to the lightning of disillusion which "well-nigh takes away their sight", i.e., still further weakens their moral perception and deepens their "terror of death".