Page 134 - The Profound Darkness of the Hypocrite

THE PROFOUND DARKNESS OF THE HYPOCRITE

on anything, even in their way of showing love and in all their other conduct.
In the verses of the Qur'an, God describes this 'demonic greed for superiority'

of hypocrites as follows:

Curse him, how he considered! Again curse him, how he considered! Then

he looked. Then he frowned and glowered. Then he drew back and was

proud. (Surat al-Muddaththir, 19-23)

In the Qur'an, God describes hypocrite's morality in great detail. When Muslims

contemplate on these, they can grasp hypocrites' greed for superiority clearly from

their attitudes, speeches, body languages, the way they walk, the way they use their

eyebrows, from the sickness in their looks and the sneaky expressions on their

faces.

Hypocrites see everything as an opportunity to make note of their superiority.

They use their beauty, health, youth, knowledge, culture, talent, dignity, spiritual

and material blessings, to sum everything, which actually God gave to them, as

a means for strutting arrogantly among others. As they see themselves greater,

they start to see other ones inferior and start to belittle them. They think that

they are the smartest, wisest, the most talented, the best speechmaker, the best

writer in the world. And they start to believe that in almost every matter they

are that perfect and talented that their superiority is rarely seen among all

people in the entire world. Hypocrites then completely run riot as a result of

this point of view. God explains hypocrites' increasing passion for arrogance in a

verse; "…have nothing in their breasts except for pride which they will never be

able to vindicate…'' (Surah Ghafir, 56)

In another verse God teaches that He does not approve of this immorality;

"... God does not love anyone vain or boastful." (Surat an-Nisa', 36) If a Muslims

shows this kind of an attitude unwittingly, believers remind them the verses of the

Qur'an and the fact that God is not pleased with this attitude; then the Muslim cor-

rects his error right away. But it is not possible to attain this outcome for the hyp-

ocrite. The verses of the Qur'an don't affect the hypocrite. Hypocrites neither

take heed from the verses nor ponder on their meanings. Therefore calling them

to the right path to save them from this greed for arrogance will not give any re-

sult. In the Qur'an, God informs what kind of an attitude that hypocrites would

adopt to such a call:

When he is told to fear God, he is seized by pride which drives him to
wrongdoing. Hell will be enough for him! What an evil resting-place! (Surat
al-Baqara, 206)

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