Sifat Al-Munafiqin (1/5)

All Praise and thanks are due to Allah, we praise Him, ask His aid, and ask His forgiveness. We take refuge with Allah from the evil of our souls and the evil of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, none can misguide; and whoever Allah leaves to stray, none can guide. I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped save Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

 “You who have faith! Fear Allah as is truly due Him and do not die except as Muslims.” [Surah Al-'Imran (3): 102]

 “O mankind! Fear your Lord who created you from a single soul and created its mate from it and then disseminated many men and women from the two of them. Fear Allah in whose name you make demands of one another and also in respect of your families. Allah watches over you.” [Surah An-Nisa’ (4): 1]

 “You who have faith!  Fear Allah and speak words that hit the mark.  He will put your actions right for you and forgive you your wrong deeds.   All who obey Allah and His Messenger have won a mighty victory.” [Surah Al-Ahzab (33): 70-71]

Hypocrisy is a deep rooted and all-pervading spiritual disease. A person's  heart could be overflowing with it yet be oblivious of it due to its hidden and subtle nature; frequently does it lead a person to think he is acting rightly when in reality he is spreading corruption.  It is of  two types: major and minor; major hypocrisy leads to eternal punishment in the lowest depths of Hell;[1] it is to outwardly display faith in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers and the Last Day whereas inwardly one is devoid of such belief, indeed disbelieving in it. He does not believe that Allah spoke to a man amongst men who He appointed to be a Messenger: guiding them by His permission and warning them of His punishment.

In the Qur'an, Allah has revealed the machinations of the hypocrites; He has unveiled their beliefs, their qualities, and made their goals clear so that the believers can be aware of them.[2] He divided mankind into three groups in the beginning of Surah Al­Baqarah: the believer, the disbeliever, and the hypocrite. He mentioned  four verses  concerning  the  believers,  two verses  concerning the disbelievers, and thirteen verses concerning the hypocrites due  to  their  plenitude   and  the  great  harm   and tribulation they bring to Islam and the Muslims.[3] The harm they cause to Islam is truly severe for they claim to be Muslims, they claim to aid and support Islam, whereas in reality they are its enemies seeking to destroy it from within, covertly spreading their corruption and ignorance such that the unwary thinks that what they are upon is knowledge and right action.

By Allah! How many strongholds of Islam have they destroyed; how many fortresses have they rendered to ruin; how many sign­posts of Islam have they effaced; how many raised flags have they lowered; and how many seeds of doubt have they attempted to sow in order to uproot the religion!

Islam and the Muslims have always faced trial and tribulation from them, wave after wave of doubts do they assault at it, all the while thinking that they are doing right,

 “No indeed! They are the corrupters but they are not aware of it.” [Surah Al-Baqarah (2): 12]

“They desire to extinguish Allah’s light with their mouths but Allah will perfect His light though the disbelievers hate it.” [Surah As-Saff (61): 8][4]

Having agreed to abandon the revelation and follow a course other than the one directed by it,

 “But they disagreed and split up, dividing into sects, each party exulting in what it had.” [Surah Al-Mu’minun (23): 53]

 “... Who inspire each other with   delusions by means of specious words.” [Surah Al-An’am (6): 112]

And because of this,

“...they took this Qur’an as something to be ignored.” [Surah Al-Furqan (25):30]

The characteristics of faith are not to be found in their hearts and hence they do not know them; oblivious are they to its pillars and hence do not take care of them; extinguished are the brilliant lights of its stars in their hearts and they do not try to relight them, and the darkness of their thoughts and beliefs has eclipsed the sun of faith such that they no longer see it. They do not accept the guidance of Allah with which He sent His Messengers, they attach no importance to it, and they see nothing wrong in leaving it for their own opinions and beliefs. They have wrenched the texts of revelation of their true status, they have detached them of their importance and definitiveness, and they have submerged them in the obscurity of false interpretations. Subterfuge after subterfuge do they launch against these texts and it is as if they face them in the same way an unwilling host meets malevolent guests: devoid of acceptance and generosity, all the while forcing himself to host them, yet keeping his distance. They say to these texts, 'You have no way to pass by us,' and if they find no option but to accept them, they do so by propounding multifarious plots and concocting various principles. When these texts find way past their doors, they say, 'What have we to do with their literal meanings, they give us no certainty whatsoever!'  and the general masses amongst  them  say, 'Sufficient for us is what we find the latter people upon  for they were more knowledgeable than the Righteous Predecessors, and firmer  and  more  rightly  guided  in knowing  the  proofs   and evidences!'  In  their  view the  way of  the  Salaf is the  way of simplicity and soundness  of  heart  because  they did not  busy themselves with investigating and  laying out  the principles  of rhetoric; instead they merely devoted  themselves  to doing the obligatory and leaving the prohibited. Therefore the way of the latter people is more deeply rooted in knowledge and wiser whereas the way of the Salaf is greater in ignorance but safer.[5]

They treat the texts of the Book and Sunnah like the Khalifah is treated in these times: while his name is written on coins and gains superficial mention in the Friday sermons, he has no real authority and it is other men who govern, his judgment is neither heard nor adhered to. They have donned the robes of the people of faith which cover their hearts of misguidance, deception and disbelief. Their tongues are the tongues of Muslims but their hearts are the hearts of those fighting them. They say,

“We have  faith  in Allah  and  the  Last  Day'  - but they  are  not  believers.” [Surah Al-Baqarah (2): 8][6] 

(Continued)