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Whomever Allahu ta’ālā desires to guide, He expands his breast to Islam, by casting into his heart a light which it [the heart] expands for and accepts, as reported in a hadīth; and whomever He, Allahu ta’ālā, desires to send astray, He makes his breast narrow (read dayqan or dayyiqan), [unable] to accept it, and constricted, extremely tight (read harijan, 'constricted', as an adjective, or harajan as a verbal noun, by which it [the heart of the misguided one] is described hyperbolically) as if he were engaged in ascent (yassa''ad, is also read as yassā'ad: in both [forms] the original tā' has been assimilated with the sād; a third [variant reading] has yas'ad) to the heaven, when he is charged with [the obligations of] the faith, because of the hardship for him therein. So, like this making [of the breast narrow], Allahu ta’ālā casts ignominy, chastisement, or [He casts] Satan, that is, He gives him authority, over those who do not believe.

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