3وَكَذَّبوا وَاتَّبَعوا أَهواءَهُم ۚ وَكُلُّ أَمرٍ مُستَقِرٌّMuhammad Asadfor they are bent on giving it the lie,1 being always wont to follow their own desires.Yet everything reveals its truth in the end.2Lit., "they have given [it] the lie": an allusion to the prediction of the Last Hour and the Day of Resurrection. The use of the past tense indicates conscious intent or determination (cf. surah 2, note 6). For my rendering of sihr as "delusion", see surah 74, note 12.Lit., "everything is settled in its [own] being": i.e., everything has an intrinsic reality (haqiqah) of its own, and is bound to reveal that reality either in this world or in the next (Baghawi, on the authority of al-Kalbi); hence, everything must have a purpose or "goal" of its own (Zamakhshari). These two - mutually complementary - interpretations reflect the repeated Qur'anic statement that everything that exists or happens has a meaning and a purpose: cf. 3:191, 10:5 and 38:27 (particularly, see note 11 on 10:5). In the present context, the phrase relates both to the truth referred to in the preceding verses and to its rejection by those who are "wont to follow [but] their own desires".