2:6-Note

Those who decide to reject God and/or His message will be able to do so in accordance to God's system designed to test the result of one’s free will to choose good or evil, to choose freedom by submitting to the Truth or slavery by submitting to falsehood (2:37; 57:22). As long as individuals follow the religion of their parents or societies on faith, without critical evaluation, they will not be able to witness the divine evidence nor will they be guided to the truth (6:110). For a brief discussion on the freedom of choice, please see our discussion on 57:22.

The Quran delineates three categories of people in the context of their reaction to the truth: Acknowledgers, Rejecters, and Hypocrites. The first and second groups are associated to each other because they are opposites while the third group is associated with the first two since it resembles both. The actions of acknowledgers associate them with paradise according to cause and effect. According to the cause-and-effect rule of association, the actions of unappreciative rejecters and hypocrites lead them to hell.

We translated the word KaFeRun as "ingrates." The word KaFaRa means "became unappreciative" of God's blessings, such as reasoning, senses, revelation, messengers, life, health, friends, relatives, trust, liberty, provisions, etc. In only one verse, the word KaFaRa is used to describe a positive rejection (14:22). Mostly in early revelations during Meccan years, the verb KaFaRa with its various derivatives was used to literally mean “unappreciative.” Later, its semantic evolves, transforming to a more specific and a more serious attitude; it becomes a defining characteristics of those who oppose the message of the Quran (2:152; 27:40; 31:12; 76:3).

The skeptical philosopher David Hume came up with an ingenious thesis claiming that there are only three ways of making associations between concepts: resemblance; congruity in space or time; and cause-effect. For instance, bees and ants may be associated with each other because of their resemblance of being insects working in a social structure. Bees and flowers may be associated with each other because of their congruity in space. Bees and honey may be associated because of cause and effect since bees make honey. Resemblance may include lack of resemblance or resemblance in quantity. We associate the decimal system with our ten fingers both because of their resemblance in quantity and assumed cause and effect relationship between them.

The Quran, while using the already established associations or relationships in our language, also emphasizes those relationships or creates new ones between concepts by either juxtaposing or contrasting them within a particular context. Furthermore, the Quran is unique in creating a new semantic relationship (we call it nusemantic from numerical semantic) between concepts through their frequencies, verse numbers or numerical values of their letters. For instance, Jesus and Adam resemble each other because they both lacked two parents. It turns out their names are both mentioned exactly 25 times in the Quran, thereby numerically strengthening their relationship. Another example of nusemantics: the Quran creates a special relationship between the word ALLAH and the attribute "The One with Great Bounties" by making the frequency of the word ALLAH equal to the numerical value (not frequency) of the letters comprising that attribute, that is, 2698. Extensive evidence of the numerical structure of the Quran provides many nusemantic relationships.(Some scholars added: For the prophecy regarding the mathematical structure of the Quran, see 74:30)(edip).