وَلَوْ نَشَآءُ لَطَمَسْنَا عَلَىٰٓ أَعْيُنِهِمْ فَٱسْتَبَقُوا۟ ٱلصِّرَٰطَ فَأَنَّىٰ يُبْصِرُونَ
Wa law nashaaa'u lata masna 'alaaa aiyunihim fasta baqus-siraata fa-annaa yubsiroon
If it had been Our will, We could have taken away their sight. They would have struggled to find the way, but how could they have seen it?
Had we willed, we could have blotted out their eyes, and they would have rushed for the path — but how could they see?
The road becomes urgent the moment sight is gone: they would race one another for the very path they had been declining to travel, istabaqa being the verb of competing to arrive first. Ṭams describes wiping a surface until its markings are gone, used elsewhere of the stars being put out. The closing question leaves them scrambling toward something they can no longer find.