بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
Allah says in the Qur’an:
“Have they devised [some] affair? But indeed, We are devising.” [43:79]
Here Allah is talking to the prophet about Quraish and therefore, the disbelievers. He asks a question (in the basic translation of the meaning: have they devised their affairs? Allah here uses the word “abramou” which is derived from the word “ibram” which in Arabic is used in construction to describe a knot that holds beams together.
In early times people used very strong knots to hold beams together for a house; the main thing to take away from this figure of speech is that these kind of knots are intended to never come loose as it holds the main form of the building together. Thus Allah here is asking “have they tied their knots?”. What kind of knots? Before this ayah Allah depicted hellfire thus talking about the disbelievers, He then essentially asks “have they permanently tied their knots of disbelief?”, meaning are they certain with their disbelief of Allah? He then says that He also has tied the knot, the knot on their hearts that leads them to what He previously described – hellfire.
Extra treasure: when talking about the disbelievers Allah uses a past verb “abrama” and when talking about Himself, He says “mubrimoon” which is a name; in Arabic a past verb (“f’il madhi”) is generally used to describe a temporary action while a name (“ism”) is used for something permanent. Allah uses this differentiation here because even though these types of people are sure of their disbelief, there will go back on their decision on judgement day, the day they see hellfire, they day all hearts will turn to Allah, the day when it will be too late as Allah’s knot is truly final.
What is interesting is that this Ayah is an “if then” statement – if they are sure of their disbelief then Allah is sure of where they are headed. This tells us that He does not seal the hearts of His creation without the creation making a decision, thus it is up to us as human beings to make the choice and is not therefore based on specific people’s influence or surroundings.
We are all born with the “fitra” which is a predisposition to believe in the oneness of Allah, it is only as we live on that people bury that belief, just as a farmer buries a seed in the ground (which is another meaning of “kafir”) and it could then reach a point that their hearts are certain of their disbelief which will lead to a permanent knot from Allah.
May Allah keep all our hearts turned towards Him and not make us of those who choose to have their hearts sealed from Islam.
Allah knows best.