وَلَوْ نَشَآءُ لَطَمَسْنَا عَلَىٰٓ أَعْيُنِهِمْ فَٱسْتَبَقُوا۟ ٱلصِّرَٰطَ فَأَنَّىٰ يُبْصِرُونَ
Wa law nashaaa'u lata masna 'alaaa aiyunihim fasta baqus-siraata fa-annaa yubsiroon
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.