37عَنِ اليَمينِ وَعَنِ الشِّمالِ عِزينَMuhammad Asad[coming upon thee] from the right and from the left, in crowds?1This, again, connects with the statement in verse 19, "man is born with a restless disposition (see note 7 above). People who do not want to see the truth of God's existence and have, therefore, no solid basis on which to build their world-view, are, by the same token, unable to conceive any definite standards of personal and social ethics. Hence, whenever they are confronted with anyone's positive assertion of faith, they "run about to and fro" in spiritual confusion, trying, in order to justify themselves intellectually, to demolish the premises of that faith by means of many-sided, contradictory arguments - an endeavour depicted in the metaphor, "coming upon thee from the right and from the left"; and since they derive all their strength from a conformity with shallow mass-opinions, they can do this only "in crowds".