"They have hearts with which they do not understand, and eyes with which they do not see, and ears with which they do not hear. Those are like cattle — rather, they are further astray. Those are the heedless."

In Ghaflah: The Sleep of the Heart

The Qur'an's fullest portrait of this state is severe enough that readers turn the page:

Every organ is present and accounted for, which is the point. Nothing has been confiscated: the hearts are there, the eyes are there, the ears are there. What is missing is function. Full equipment, and no reception.

The likeness to cattle is not an insult about intelligence. Cattle are functioning exactly as cattle were made to function. They eat, they move toward comfort, they avoid pain, and there is no fault in that, because nothing further was ever asked of them. The severity lies elsewhere: we were given more, and we are spending it on the same narrow errands. Eat, move toward comfort, avoid pain, and begin again tomorrow. Faculties fashioned for the recognition of our Creator, spent entirely upon the management of our appetites.