Page 17 - The Hypocrite According to the Qur'an

The Fundamental Traits Of Hypocrites

truly deluded. For, to the true believer, even the slightest insin-
cerity is apparent. Still, beyond that, Allah, Who is aware of the
innermost thoughts, knows the real intentions of these people.
Consequently, those attributes of a believer they pretend out-
wardly have no validity whatsoever in Allah’s sight.
Allah relates this truth in the following verse, “... What
they are doing [their worship] is purposeless.” (Surat al-Araf,
139) Moreover, Allah knows of the hypocrites’ disingenuous-
ness, and whatever else they think are able to conceal.
Consequently, in the words of the Qur’an, through such insin-
cerity, "... [hypocrites] deceive no one but themselves but
they are not aware of it." (Surat al-Baqara, 9)
A number of attributes of hypocrites are as follows:

They Issue From The Community Of Believers
Hypocrites must be from among the believers. Where
there are no believers, one can talk about the people called idol-
aters or disbelievers. However, if there is a community of believ-
ers within a society, some may insinuate themselves into it, and
pretend to be among them so as to gain advantage of the bless-
ings that abound among the believers. The pursuit for personal
gain is the only reason for their feigned piety.
From the verses of the Qur’an, we learn that the existence of
a group of hypocrites within a community of believers is con-
sistent reality. By living among the believers, hypocrites aim
primarily at destroying their community from within, to harm
them and disrupt their unity, and to support the disbelievers
against them and Allah’s messenger. Towards all such pur-
poses, the hypocrites choose to remain within the community

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