Surah Ya-Sin 36:9
سُورَةُ يسٓ · Meccan · Verse 9 of 83
وَجَعَلْنَا مِنۢ بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ سَدًّۭا وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ سَدًّۭا فَأَغْشَيْنَٰهُمْ فَهُمْ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ
Translation
and set barriers before and behind them, blocking their vision: they cannot see.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'We placed a barrier before them and a barrier behind them, and covered them, so they cannot see.' Ibn Ashur pictures a person walled in from the front and the back, every direction of escape toward guidance sealed off. al-Saadi stresses this walling came after they rejected the truth: the barriers are the hardening that follows persistent refusal, not an arbitrary imprisonment. Ask yourself: I can wall myself in the same way, one refusal at a time, until I'm boxed in by my own certainties and can no longer imagine the exits. What barrier did I build the day I decided, once and for all, that I already knew, and refused to look again?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Ya-Sin 36:9 is discussed in 2 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Ya-Sin 36:9 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.