«وَلَمَّا تَعَامَى الدَّهْرُ وَهُوَ أَبُو الْوَرَى»
When the age itself pretended blindness, though it is the father of mankind.
The age is personified as a parent who feigns blindness. This comic premise sets up Abū Zayd’s attempt to explain his own pretended blindness by appeal to the world’s behaviour.
The argument belongs to the character’s witty self-defence. Recognizing the irony does not mean accepting deception as justified; rhetorical ingenuity and ethical validity remain different questions.