5 Preface وَقالوا قُلوبُنا في أَكِنَّةٍ مِمّا تَدعونا إِلَيهِ وَفي آذانِنا وَقرٌ وَمِن بَينِنا وَبَينِكَ حِجابٌ فَاعمَل إِنَّنا عامِلونَYusuf AliThey say: “Our hearts are1 under veils, (concealed) from that to which thou dost invite us, and in our ears in a deafness, and between us and thee is a screen: so do2 thou (what thou wilt); for us, we shall do (what we will!)"The consequence of their wilful rejection is that a distance is created between Revelation and those for whom it is meant; their ears become deaf, so that the voice falls fainter and fainter on their ears: they feel a bar between themselves and the Messenger who comes to teach them (Cf. 6:25).This is either a superiority complex adopting the sarcastic tone of an inferiority complex, or it expresses calculated indifference to spiritual teaching. In effect it says: “Our hearts and minds are not intelligent enough to understand your noble ideas, nor our ears sufficiently acute to hear their exposition: you and we are quite different; there is a gulf between us. Why worry about us? You go your way, and we shall go ours!”