al-Naml 27:80-81

innaka lā tusmiʿu'l-mawtā wa lā tusmiʿu'ṣ-ṣumma'd-duʿāʾa idhā wallaw mudbirīn · wa mā anta bi-hādi'l-ʿumyi ʿan ḍalālatihim, in tusmiʿu illā man yuʾminu bi-āyātinā fa-hum muslimūn

"You cannot make the dead hear; nor can you make the deaf hear the call when they turn their backs and go. Nor can you lead the blind out of their straying. You can make none hear but those who believe in Our signs; and they are the ones who have submitted."

The verse enumerates three types, and all three are named by way of a sense:

And a qualification is added to the second type: idhā wallaw mudbirīn — "when they turn their backs and go."

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the qualification is added only to the second: a deaf person standing before you can still be reached — by the lips, by a sign, by touch. Once he has turned his back and gone, even that is gone. The qualification thus completes the impossibility.

And almost these same verses occur in al-Rūm at 30/52-53, and they were treated there. The two sūras enumerate the same three obstacles in the same order. I do not repeat it; I rely on that treatment.

Per the method (Method) I write it out plainly:

These verses are not a sentence of judgement sorting people into "the dead, the deaf and the blind". The subject of the sentence is the Prophet, and what is said is the limit of his power — indeed the verbs are his: lā tusmiʿu, mā anta bi-hādī.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the subject of the verbs: the verse reports less the state of the other side than what the messenger cannot do. And this too is a link in the chain of limits set out in a table in al-Qaṣaṣ at 28/56.

And the positive side must be recorded: in tusmiʿu illā… — negation plus exception.

A point of word order must be recorded, and it is striking: the sentence does not say "you make those who believe hear" — it says man yuʾminu, an imperfect verb. That is: "one who is believing / who will believe."

I record this as an observation about the word order: the pattern gives hearing not as the consequence of faith but as something that goes together with faith. And the sentence closes with fa-hum muslimūn — the sūra's line of س-ل-م occurs here for the last time, outside the narrative.

Six occurrences; four inside the narrative, two outside it. This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the table above: the word the sūra established inside a narrative is applied, once the narrative is over, to those the sūra addresses, and finally to the Prophet himself. The last sentence of the narrative (44) and the last block of the sūra (91) are bound together by the same word.