The Hypocrite’s Immorality and Ruses (2/7)

When hypocrites think that they can’t do enough action with their dingy glances, they try to insult Muslims with their parlance

If We wished, We would show them to you and you would know them by their mark and know them by their ambivalent speech. God knows your actions. (Surah Muhammad, 30)

The verbal expression is one of the most important signs of the hypocrites just as their glances. In the Qur'an, God states that Muslims can ‘recognize hypocrites from their ambivalent speech’. The reason for this is that wording of hypocrites do not resemble to the Muslims’ way of speaking, convenance and morality. Hypocrites talk in an angry, sharp-tongued, insolent, disrespectful, allusive, venomous and an assailant way. Their disdainfulness, insinuations, statements that were chosen in order to hurt Muslims, lies, slanders and wordings that consistently blame Muslims are all characteristic features of hypocrites. Hypocrites say words that Muslims would never speak based on their fear of God, and they insolently demonstrate their thoughts, which are against the Qur’an and moral values of Islam.

Understanding what hypocrites aim at with their words is important since, every action of the hypocrites is targeted to reach a specific result. They do not talk in a genuine natural manner. They want to gain their intended benefit, clear their name, emphasize their supremacy and rightfulness while emphasizing others’ deficiencies, faults and defects. They aim to wreathe their sneaky secret actions and their connection with unbelievers or draw a red herring across the path. Taking revenge from someone, supporting a lie and making it believable or leading Muslims to a mistaken way which will make Muslims unsuccessful or something similar are the reasons for hypocrite’s talking. No matter which, the hypocrites try to actualize little piece of a big plan with each word that they speak just as they do with all their attitudes. All these wording disorders are crucial signs, which ‘give us important clues in recognizing the hypocrite’.

This characteristic of hypocrites’ who are introduced in the Qur'an with the words, ‘you know them by their ambivalent speech’ are also reported in another verse as follows:

…They flay you with sharp tongues, grasping for wealth. Such people have no faith and God will make their actions come to nothing. That is easy for God. (Surat al-Ahzab, 19)

God informs that hypocrites ‘have sharp tongues’. They try to use their parlance efficiently with an evil intelligence for their profane benefits. In the verse it is also stated that hypocrites also use their sharp tongues to ‘criticize’ Muslims and ‘hurt’ them. In another verse, God teaches us about this vileness of hypocrites:

You will be tested in your wealth and in yourselves and you will hear many abusive words from those given the Book before you and from those who are idolaters. But if you are steadfast and guard against evil, that is the most resolute course to take. (Surah Al ‘Imran, 186)

Hypocrites carry out their iniquity against all Muslims. But especially the ones who take the lead of Muslims, who are seen the most powerful by means of wisdom, penetration, foresight, knowledge and experience; the ones who serve to Islam most and spread God’s message most efficiently are hypocrites’ foremost targets. Because these people effectuate what is the most undesirable for evil and they put up the most affective intellectual struggle against satan. Therefore, the hypocrites who are sort of puppets of satan, choose the ones who are in the leading position as foremost targets.

Indeed all hypocrites in history did not change the course of their target, and in each era they put up their most evil fight against God’s prophets, messengers and saintly believers. In the Qur'an, it is stated that hypocrites living in the Muslim community at the time of the Prophet (pbuh) ‘were aiming to hurt our Prophet (pbuh)’:

Among them are some who insult the Prophet, saying he is only an ear. Say, ‘An ear of good for you, believing in God and believing in the believers, and a mercy for those among you who have faith.’ As for those who insult the Messenger of God, they will have a painful punishment. (Surat at-Tawba, 61)

Hypocrites, knowing that they lie, made ‘insincere, sneaky, venomous and wrathful accusations’ towards our Prophet (pbuh) with the purpose of ‘aggrieving and annoying’ him. In the Qur'an it is stated that same immorality was also an important characteristic of hypocrites in the era of the Prophet Moses (pbuh):

You who have faith! Do not be like those who abused Moses. God absolved him of what they said and he was highly honored with God. (Surah Al-Ahzab, 69)

God explains how the hypocrites who have lived throughout history and will live until the Day of Judgment show the same evil iniquity and how they can use the same methods in a verse as follows:

Stir up any of them you can with your voice and rally against them your cavalry and your infantry and share with them in their children and their wealth and make them promises! The promise of satan is nothing but delusion. (Surah Al-Isra’, 64)

In the verse, one of the most important parts of the ones who are indicated as “any of them you can’’ are ‘hypocrites’. Satan can conduct the ones who listen to him, obey him and thereby who aim a struggle against Islam, the Qur'an and Muslims. Satan can direct them and make his way as he wants. Indeed, ‘hurting Muslims with sharp tongues’, ‘stirring up with voice and rallying against’ are all methods that satan teaches to hypocrites and makes them carry out. In every era, hypocrites used this treacherous and grubby method with satan’s whisperings and they still continue to use it.

When they are applying these methods, again with the inspiration they receive from satan, hypocrites pay attention to use ‘sharp tongues’ as it is reported in the verse. They carefully use specific words, which they assume to be able to put a damper on Muslims, make them hopeless and deject them. They use a way of speaking that is allusive, envious, vindictive, quarrelsome, mordacious, intriguer and highly-charged. They aim embarrassing Muslims with trying to revive their incapability, deficiencies, defects and faults. They also assume that they can efface other believers’ respect, compassion and trust towards them with this method.

Especially they surmise – up to their conjecture - that they find a deficiency of the spiritually leading Muslims and mention it with huge excitement and exaggerating words. They think that thereby this person’s dignity and position will be shaken and Muslims will lose their trust towards him and they hope that as a result of all these they can do harm to Islam and Muslims. Then they assume that they can generate disturbance, so that Muslims will fall apart. Thus the door of the dark path in hypocrites’ souls would be opened and they then anticipate to live the life of unbelievers they have been longing for.

Hypocrites assume that they can hurt Muslims and make them sad with couple of words or accusations and change their point of views and also make them lose their trust, compassion and respect since hypocrites can’t comprehend the strong trust and submission to God that a Muslim possesses in sincere faith.

Yet, Muslims see blessings and beauty in everything created by God. They are the ones who are ready to lose their possessions or lives on the path of God, they are ready for any kind of self sacrifice. They perfectly know that illnesses, deficiencies and mistakes are all part of the faith as blessings and beauties. Therefore they can clearly see the situation of they hypocrite whose heart is full of grudge, rage, jealousy, anger and who is totally under the control of satan and admirer of unbelievers while being an enemy to Muslims. With such an evil creature’s efforts; neither losing morale, offense, sadness, hopelessness nor being unhappy is possible for Muslims.

But hypocrites, who are unaware of this crucial truth, always try to sneakily struggle against Muslims with their speech that reflects their wicked souls. Thereby, while unbelievers try to devastate Muslims from outside, they maliciously try to make believers lose power from inside. They think that they can traumatize Muslims with making a fuss through satan’s whisperings. However as stated in the continuance of the verse; “…They flay you with sharp tongues, grasping for wealth. Such people have no faith and God will make their actions come to nothing. That is easy for God.” (Surat al-Ahzab, 19) God will frustrate hypocrites’ ruses, ruin their traps and certainly make them fall through.

Hypocrites scream unrestrainedly when they get angry

Muslims are very temperate and judicious. Since they are absolutely sure that God creates everything and each incident, they live with trusting God completely. Therefore, regardless of how hard an incident or wrong attitudes they encounter are, they ‘never lose their control and never show and attitude that is non-compliant to the moral values of the Qur'an.’ Getting angry, flying off the handle, raising their voices, clamoring, using aggressive and quarrelsome wording are all attitudes that a Muslim will never come near. Even if events do not occur as they want, even if other people make mistakes, Muslims know that all these are created for a good reason as part of destiny.

On the other hand, the hypocrites, like in all other cases, attract attention with behavioral disorders which are total opposite of Muslims. When they face with a little case, which seems as an annoyance, they instantly get angry and start grumbling, clamoring, disputing and showing assailant, and quarrelsome attitudes. Their anarchic soul that they used to hide externalizes from their mouth. Until that moment they pretend to be a Muslim but when they get angry they lose their control and start to uncloak their irreligious characteristics overtly. God informs that hypocrites in the era of our Prophet (pbuh) were also showing the same immorality of profanity and ill manners even if when they were with our Prophet (pbuh):

You who have faith! Do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet and do not be as loud when speaking to him as you are when speaking to one another, lest your actions should come to nothing without your realizing it. (Surat al-Hujurat, 2)

Also in an other verse it is stated that God ‘does not approve of a yelling and disquieting wording’ manner: “... Be moderate in your tread and lower your voice. The most hateful of voices is the donkey’s bray.’’ (Surah Luqman, 19). Yet, deliberately and insistently showing an attitude that God is not pleased with is an important characteristic of the hypocrite. With their determination on this kind of immorality, hypocrites clearly show that they are different from Muslims and long for living the life of unbelievers.

Hypocrites strut arrogantly with their disdainfulness

In the Qur'an, God warns Muslims to avoid acting snobbishly with the verse; “Do not strut arrogantly about the earth. You will certainly never split the earth apart nor will you ever rival the mountains in height.’’ (Surat al-Isra’, 37)

Knowing that the immorality described in the verse is not approved by God, Muslims fastidiously avoid the slightest ill -conduct that can be interpreted as egocentrism or arrogance. Quite the contrary to Muslims, hypocrites use every opportunity to thrust themselves to the forefront, emphasize their greatness and accentuate that they are superior than everyone. Their greed of superiority and coming to the fore is very severe. Therefore, this mood dominates all their attitudes, speeches and facial expressions for all day long. The greed of superiority reflections are seen in all their glances, voice, speeches, in the way they act, in their comments 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, from the way they walk, the way they use their eyebrows, from the sickness in their looks and the sneaky expressions on their faces.

The 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. The 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…’’ (Surat al-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 corrects his error right away. But it is not possible to attain this outcome for the hypocrite. The verses of the Qur'an don’t affect the hypocrite. The 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 result. 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)

Hypocrites are deprived of respect; they are discourteous and inconsiderate

One of the main characteristics of Muslims is their way of speaking which is compatible with the moral values of the Qur'an for their entire lives. Once they have faith in God, they become purified from the negative features seen in the majority of people of ignorance. Thereby, this pure and blessed morality of believers dominates their all attitudes and speech. Wherever they may be, they determine how should they behave with their conscience according to the course of events, what people need, the circumstances and conditions. Even if they encounter a case they have never experienced before, they adopt the best attitude by listening to the voice of their conscience and make the most felicitous speech.

As for hypocrites, they are deprived of Muslims’ excellence in prudence and foresight. Of course if they want, they can acquire skills in these positive attitudes by seeing sincere Muslims. But since their main goal is slyly struggling against Muslims, they don’t feel the need of changing their hypocrisy. Since they are not slanted towards God, the moral values of the Qur'an and conscience, they show evil and negative attitudes instead of positive, lenient and pleasant ones. Similarly, they prefer allegorical, allusive and snobby statements within their speeches instead of being constructive, calming and irenical. They do not hesitate using rude, sharp-tongued, discourteous, disgusting, quarrelsome, aggressive, insolent or accusatory wordings. Among Muslims, they daftly adopt every disturbing and rude attitude, which they have learned in the days of ignorance, and which are not compatible with convenance and propriety.

While all the words of Muslims are pleasant and courteous, the impudent hypocrites’ words are all repugnant and repellent. They are deprived of respect; they are insolent, snobbish, blunt, rude, inconsiderate and tactless. They are discourteous and impertinent as if they are unconscious. From all these features, it is understood that they are ‘people with sick, unbalanced and hypocrite souls’.

However one of the things that Muslims care mostly and make tiny distinctions on is living for attaining God’s approval with immaculate and pleasant moral values. With being purified from crude minds, attitudes and the speech of the days of ignorance, they try to form an environment like heaven. Therefore as much as possible they adopt a tactful, self-sacrificing, thoughtful, indulgent, forgiving, humble, easygoing, modest, patient, eloquent, conciliatory, warm-hearted, reverential and friendly manner to each other. Thus, there is a huge contrast between Muslims’ outstanding morality and hypocrites’ negative attitudes. So it creates an important sign in order to recognize hypocrites who don’t hesitate using evil wording, making irreligious speeches and adopting disgusting attitudes.

Hypocrites were raising their voices in the presence of our Prophet (pbuh) and talking in an insolent manner

In the era of our Prophet (pbuh), there were a lot people around Muslims who didn’t know grace, kind thoughts, being respectful and they were attracting attention with their ill-favored manners. Among those people there were hypocrites who were deliberately showing such immorality, as well as idolaters, ill-hearted ones, uncouth or ignorant people. Hypocrites were adopting such ugly attitudes towards not only Muslims but also to our Prophet (pbuh) (surely our Prophet (pbuh) is beyond this). Even hypocrites were deliberately displaying this evil mannerism against him much severer than they showed to Muslims. The reason was of course their unfaithfulness and jealousy towards our Prophet (pbuh) for the blessings he has, the love and respect that he receives, his superior rank and dignity. They were deeming themselves more worthy of being the leaders; and they believed that they were superior, wiser and more talented than our Prophet (pbuh). Therefore, showing him the respect, reverence and the love he deserved and behaving in accordance to moral values of the Qur'an to him were offending hypocrites.

These people were talking in a disrespectful, rude, insolent, aggressive, quarrelsome and accusing manner with our Prophet (pbuh) and they were also raising their voices and talking loudly (surely our Prophet (pbuh) is beyond these). In the Qur'an, God warns those ones who were showing this evil attitude and reminds that ‘it will have an ample retribution in the Presence of God’:

You who have faith! Do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet and do not be as loud when speaking to him as you are when speaking to one another, lest your actions should come to nothing without your realizing it. (Surat al-Hujurat, 2)

God informs us that if someone speaks with the Prophet (pbuh) in this ugly and aggressive manner, his beneficial actions and good deeds will come to nothing as a result. It is also stated that Muslims who speak in avoidance of these kinds of attitude disorders, who articulate temperately and respectfully in the presence of our Prophet (pbuh) will be given a significant reward in the hereafter:

Those who lower their voices when they are with the Messenger of God are people whose hearts God has tested for heedfulness. They will have forgiveness and an immense reward. (Surat al-Hujurat, 3)

Undoubtedly that, each incident that took place in the era of our Prophet (pbuh), each provision that are stated regarding to them, are also guide ways for each subsequent Muslim community. The ‘respect and reverence convenance’ towards our Prophet (pbuh) that is described in the Qur'an shows Muslims how the respect that is shown between each other and towards their spiritual leaders who have outstanding morals should be.

Hypocrites were trying to come to the fore beside our Prophet (pbuh) and trying to exalt themselves

In the Qur'an, another important thing that is reminded to Muslims is ‘the importance of prioritizing our Prophet (pbuh) in every setting that he is present and on every subject, revering him ahead and treasuring him the most’. This morality is a very important ‘sign of believers’ that manifests Muslims’ love, respect, reverence and devotion towards our Prophet (pbuh).

The ones who don’t feel these sincerely, can’t show these moral values of the Qur'an even through mimicking. Hypocrites who feel ‘jealousy, rage, anger, intolerance and greed for coming to the fore or superiority’ towards our Prophet (pbuh), can never show respectful behaviors of a true Muslim. Contrarily, hypocrites attract notice with their ‘disrespectful attitudes’ that are total opposite of Muslims’ in the presence of the Prophet (pbuh).

In the Qur'an, God reveals how Muslims’ respect and propriety should be both to hypocrite characters who show this ill morality and to the good-intentioned ones who adopt wrong manners due to their ignorance or uncouthness as follows:

You who have faith! Do not put yourselves forward in front of God and of His Messenger; and fear God. God is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. (Surat al-Hujurat, 1)

As it is known, at that time there were people from every belief, culture and character around our Prophet (pbuh) as well as sincere Muslims. There were the ones who were actually well-intentioned but did not know moral values of Islam yet or the ones who had defects on matters of kind thoughts, courtesy, kindness and respect due to their upbringing. But hypocrites were different than all the others as they were showing these immoralities and attitude disorders deliberately and intentionally. That is to say that hypocrites perfectly knew how to behave in the presence of our Prophet (pbuh) with due respect. But in order to make him sense their evil mindset sneakily, they especially weren’t adopting this respectful manner. In order to cover their insincerity they were saying that they loved our Prophet (pbuh); but essentially there were grudge and hatred within their hearts instead of love, thus it was very offending for them to show respect to him. Since, the real purpose of hypocrites was not to revere our Prophet (pbuh) but in fact to thrust themselves to the forefront.

They wanted to ‘lessen the love and respect towards our Prophet (pbuh) and then show everyone their so-called intelligence, knowledge and talent to be greater than his’. Thereby, they thought that they would mislead the ones who have wimpy faith and withhold them from following our Prophet’s (pbuh) path. They assumed that they could this way misdirect those to the evil conduct of the irreligious and make them their followers. However each sinister and insincere attitude they adopted in order to thrust themselves to the forefront was another demonstration of ‘hypocrites’ fatuousness’ and manifesting ‘how outstanding wisdom’ our Prophet (pbuh) had.

Indeed, this hypocrite character in the era of our Prophet (pbuh) has been showing up in the same sneaky way in all Muslim communities throughout history. Hypocrites’ target has been always the one who is ‘the spiritual leader and guide’ of Muslims at that moment. At the present time, hypocrites aim at the ones who serve most beneficially to Islam, who put up the most efficient struggle against irreligion and who strengthen believers most; these blessed people are targets of hypocrites.

The reason for the hypocrites’ denial to accept showing respect to the spiritual leaders who have outstanding morality just as they denied towards our Prophet (pbuh) is actually very overt. Hypocrites stay with Muslims not to attain God’s approval, mercy or heaven by living in compliance with morals of the Qur'an. Therefore, while Muslims try to live by the good morals in the best possible way, hypocrites don’t have such a purpose, eagerness or resolution. They either have faith in God and hereafter fractionally or choose unbelief completely. They live without considering that they will be questioned in the hereafter for what they have done it their worldly life. What is important for them is preserving their worldly interests and pass their lives as they desire. If they are able to move forward in accordance with their purposes sneakily and in a quirky manner, if they can reach their benefits without leaving any trace behind, without adumbrating people with their ruses; then there isn’t any problem for them. As long as they preserve their benefits and get what they want, it is not important or necessary for them to have good morals, be tactful, kind or respectful.

Hypocrites, by the reason of this ill-favored point of view, act in order to reach their goals with crafty games, verbiages, and lies also when they are near to the Muslims’ spiritual leader. Since they don’t feel a true love neither towards our Prophet (pbuh), nor towards Muslims or their spiritual leaders, they don’t show the ‘morality of sincere respect and treating with honor’ which is the indicator of this love. Their impertinent, thoughtless, discourteous, insincere and imposter attitudes and manners manifest itself immediately in the places where our Prophet (pbuh), the messengers of God or spiritual leaders of Muslims are.

However they try to do all these under-handed ‘with sneaky and indemonstrable methods’ as best as one can. They clearly know that if they were to show inappropriate immoralities overtly and explicitly, Muslims would collaborate and come out against it in a serious way. Therefore they adroitly do their secret immoralities as if they are doing these ‘erroneously, without noticing, due to lack of experience or unknowingly’. For instance, when the the spiritual leader of Muslims elucidates something erudite and important, they want to interrupt him and show their own knowledge. For this purpose they persistently interrupt his speech as if it is happening erroneously. After every new speech, hypocrites try to prove that they know that subject way much better than the spiritual leader of Muslims. Or they pretend to share some reasonable information but actually they want to emphasize that the other the spiritual leader knows wrong and talks inexact. They make non-erudite and unnecessary speeches for hours gauchely, tactlessly and in a way that not letting the main person talk. By this way they continuously try to abuse these blessed people’s kindness and good morality.

Certainly, all these morality disorders they deliberately adopt depends on deviant and evil logic. Hypocrites don’t believe that prophets and messengers are superior than them, chosen by God, bedecked with a special wisdom, or erudite and knowledgeable. Hypocrites do not also accept that they have higher conscience, superior morals and are blessed people just as they don’t believe the same for all Muslims. Even hypocrites see themselves superior than prophets, saintly believers and leader of Muslims by means of their intellect, intelligence, knowledge, and experience. In the Qur'an, this deviant befooling of hypocrites is described in the story of Saul as follows:

Their Prophet said to them, ‘God has appointed Saul to be your king.’ They said, ‘How can he have kingship over us when we have much more right to kingship than he does? He has not even got much wealth!’ He said, ‘God has chosen him over you and favored him greatly in knowledge and physical strength. God gives kingship to anyone He wills. God is All-Encompassing, All-Knowing.’ (Surat al-Baqara, 247)

At that time, God revealed to believers that ‘Saul was chosen as a leader’ but hypocrite characters in that era claimed that ‘they are more appropriate for kingship and leadership’ with assertions based on ignorant calculations. They advocated that the one who was richest by means of wealth and possessions should be the leader. However, in the verse God points out that superiority doesn’t come with goods and wealth. Leadership happens not based on ignorant and ostensible measures, but is granted through God’s will and choice and God gives a special knowledge, erudite, physical strength and enlightenment to the servants He choses to make leaders, therefore favors the leader of Muslims with eminence and superiority.

However, hypocrites’ value judgments are incompatible with the Qur'an. In the direction of their own idolatrous beliefs they have described rules of the time of ignorance as ‘realities of life’; and they think that the spiritual leaders of Muslims are unaware of these realities. They presume up to their thinking that the leaders of Muslims ‘don’t know people well, can’t recognize people’s real characters, can’t evaluate incidents right and therefore don’t take wise decisions’. Besides, hypocrites believe that everything should be evaluated in accordance with the ostensible benefit calculations. For them ‘the wisest person is the one who preserves his benefits better and who gets more interest.’

Therefore hypocrites can’t comprehend the fact that our Prophet (pbuh) didn’t live in accordance with the ignorant people’s ‘deviant value judgments and their desire to get benefit .’ With their wimpy minds they described our Prophet’s (pbuh) choices which he had made considering most of God’s approval instead of preserving benefits as ‘inexact’ or ‘wrong’ (surely our Prophet (pbuh) is beyond this).

However, God gave the prophets, messengers and His saintly servants a special enlightenment and taught them ‘hidden knowledge’ besides ‘outward knowledge’. Therefore these blessed and enlightened people conduct with awareness of many things that normal people can’t know; and they are granted this special knowledge with guidance and inspiration from God. They can see details ordinary people can’t see and notice possibilities others don't realize through their high enlightenment, insight and prudence. Therefore their speeches, decisions and assessments are highly erudite, well-directed and full of wisdom, considerably superior than the understandings of people who only ponder through outward knowledge.

Our Prophet (pbuh) acts with the outstanding wisdom and knowledge God grants to him and conducts with the inspiration of Almighty God, Who has infinite wisdom, Who also creates the totality of unbelievers, hypocrites and rules of people of ignorance. The Prophet (pbuh) evaluates people and affairs with this higher wisdom, profundity, penetration and foresight; and makes his decisions with God’s guidance and inspiration, his conscience and according to the moral values of the Qur'an . Therefore he takes the most auspicious decisions, diagnoses in the most accurate way and acts with best guidance and direction. As a result, God gives the glad tidings in the Qur’an that ‘it is the party of God who are victorious’:

As for those who make God their friend, and His Messenger and those who have faith: it is the party of God who are victorious! (Surat al-Ma’ida, 56)

Hypocrites were talking to our Prophet (pbuh) loudly from outside his private quarters

Actually, hypocrites perfectly knew how the manners and wordings should be in the presence of our Prophet (pbuh). But since they could accept the ‘superiority’ of our Prophet (pbuh), it was offending for them to show a deep respect towards him. Therefore they were trying to execute ‘evil misdemeanors’ sneakily by acting with contumacy and disobedience in such settings. While Muslims were attracting notice with their remarkable ‘conscientious love and exquisite respect’ towards our Prophet (pbuh), they came to be recognized as persons possessing ‘hypocrite characters’ by our Prophet (pbuh) and sincere believers due to their devious misconduct.

However, we should remember that ‘hypocrisy’ is not the only reason of misbehavior in people’s wordings and manners. A person may make mistakes due to his ignorance, thoughtlessness, benightedness, inexpertness, rude attitudes or vulgarity. The hypocrites’ differential features are their ‘painstaking insistence and not giving up on wrong attitudes despite being taught the right moral values’; and ‘not feeling any regret after their attitudes and not looking for any correction of their mistakes.’ They absolutely consider themselves to be on the true path and to be right. When they exhibit other hypocritical attitudes besides these, these facts should certainly be taken into consideration and suspected as pre-eminent by Muslims.

In the Qur'an, another example of the hypocrites’ attitude disorder they exhibit in the presence of our Prophet (pbuh) is revealed in the following verse:

As for those who call out to you from outside your private quarters, most of them do not use their intellect. If they had only been patient until you came out to them, it would have been better for them. But God is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat al-Hujurat, 4-5)

Hypocrites who try to execute evil actions with interrupting, knowingness, yelling, raising their voices, using a quarrelsome manner, use the method of ‘calling out from outside private quarters’ just as described in the verse.

Our Prophet (pbuh) is a blessed person who is remarkably noticed with his superior morality, high conscience, profound wisdom, which is reflected in his way of speaking and gentle conduct. As it is stated in the Qur'an with the verse “You have an excellent model in the Messenger of God, for all who put their hope in God and the Last Day and remember God much,’’ (Surat al-Ahzab, 21) God exemplified him with his morality and life for all Muslims. It is unthinkable that a person close to our Prophet (pbuh) who is an amazing blessing will not notice his outstanding morality. Every person who acts in line with his conscience and strives for attaining God’s approval can take his superior morality as an example for himself and beautify his conduct. Besides, it is clear that our Prophet (pbuh) who perfectly knows gentleness, kind thoughts, respect, and love and carry out them consummately, will see reverse of these attitudes exhaustively in detail and be disturbed by evil or ignorant misbehavior that is opposite to moral values of the Qur'an.

Yet, hypocrites were aware of all these truths. They exhibited those repugnant attitudes with emphasizing their deviant point of views in order to bother Muslims and to be esteemed in the eyes of hypocrites.

Hypocrites who yell and raise their voices during our Prophet’s (pbuh) conversations, who try to preclude our Prophet (pbuh), who call him behind doors and outside his private quarters, of course give significant evidence against themselves with these attitudes. Therefore Muslims can clearly differentiate them from sincere Muslims who are deeply committed to our Prophet (pbuh), who hold a profound love for him in their hearts and treat him with ultimate grace and respect. Thus believers also recognize those who cannot be trusted and should be watched out.

Those sick souls could not appreciate our Prophet’s (pbuh) outstanding morality, high conscience, patience and compassion, and were not conscious of how a precious blessing it was to live in the same era with our Prophet (pbuh); they surely sustained losses both in this world and the hereafter.

Just like in the era of our Prophet (pbuh), today’s hypocrites who exhibit the same evil attitude towards Muslims and their spiritual leaders will face the same detriment. They will never be able to damage Islam, Muslims or messengers that God chose and made superior. The darkness of the evil world they desire will first parch them with pain, distress and unhappiness within this world, and then they will meet with the hell’s torment. In a verse in the Qur'an, God reveals the end of the ones who spurned their Lord’s command:

How many cities spurned their Lord’s command and His Messengers! And so We called them harshly to account and punished them with a terrible punishment (Surat at-Talaq, 8)

While Muslims remember God with love, hypocrites rarely remember God

In the Qur'an, another important information given about hypocrites is that they ‘rarely remember God’.

The hypocrites think they deceive God, but He is deceiving them. When they get up to pray, they get up lazily, showing off to people, and only remembering God a very little. (Surat an-Nisa’, 142)

Hypocrites know verses of the Qur'an very well, just as all Muslims do. They are aware of all characteristics of hypocrisy that are described in the verses. Therefore, they know that ‘remembering God frequently is an important qualification of Muslims’’ and ‘remembering God very little is a distinct feature of hypocrites’. Normally it may be expected from the hypocrites to remember God and talk about verses just to convince Muslims that they are ‘sincere believers’ and not to divulge themselves. However, they cannot even imitate this way of worshipping our Lord as a miracle. On this matter, God has locked their prudence and sealed their tongues. There is a huge contrast between sincere Muslim’s wholehearted remembrance of God Who is loved more than anything in the world and hypocrite’s evasion from conversations on faith.

Hypocrites spend long time on things that are of interest to their selfish desires and subjects that are in parallel with their benefits. They are ready to join any kind of activity that their lower-selves desire or they enjoy physically. Sports, listening to music, watching movies, strolling outside, getting an hair care done, watching football matches, spending a long time on social media and posting things about themselves cheer them up. They will do these with huge eagerness and enthusiasm.

The hypocrites can talk about ‘what they will wear, what their hair will look like, what they will eat or where they will go for shopping’ for hours without getting bored. Hypocrites feel an incredible contentment when they talk about only worldly matters.

Of course, these are eminently reasonable and legitimate activities that anyone can do during the day. However, hypocrites are active and enthusiastic for only these matters. On the other hand, when they come together with Muslims for a benevolent conversation, their hearts sink. They become jaded, dull and unexcited. Especially they never want to be in a place where believers remember God and hold conversations on topics related to faith. Every place where Muslims speak about subjects like the Almighty Power of God, the excellence of destiny, the importance of abiding by the moral values of the Qur'an, and Muslims’ loving each other and being sincere friends, hypocrites become extremely exhausted and suffer in misery.

The reason why hypocrites don’t want to remember God and don’t want to be in places where He is remembered is that they feel a fondness and admiration towards satan instead of having love for God. They don’t consider God as their friend as they are friends with satan. Therefore they do what satan wants, not what God wants. Hence, when God is remembered, when the verses of the Qur'an are read out loud, hypocrites lose their temper inwardly. With every verse of the Qur'an being recited, they think that their hypocrite character which is completely the opposite of Muslim morality will be revealed. Thus they feel an incredible grudge and rage in their hearts. God has made a perfect diagnosis of hypocrites in the Qur'an and revealed their signs in great detail; and this fact makes hypocrites horrified with fear. For that reason they can’t stand listening to the Qur'an. But since they have to hide themselves, they can’t say anything. There is nothing they can do about it. (The Qur’an is beyon this). Therefore they reflect their annoyance and fury on their eyes and want to carry out a devious action at least in that way. God informs us of the hypocrites’ evil condition when God is remembered and the Qur'an is recited in the following verse:

Those who are unbelievers all but strike you down with their evil looks when they hear the Reminder… (Surat al-Qalam, 51)

In the Qur'an, God reminds that; “…Remembrance of God is greater still. God knows what you do.” (Surat al-‘Ankabut, 45) and commands Muslims to show their love for God through remembering Him and exalting Him with His most beautiful Names. Also in another verse God reveals this edict as follows:

Remember Me – I will remember you. Give thanks to Me and do not be ungrateful. (Surat al-Baqara, 152)

On the other hand satan whispers to hypocrites, whom he has attained as its followers, ‘not to remember God’. Since, ‘remembrance of God, being devoutly faithful to God and following God’s path’ are attitudes which are ‘the most undesirable and disconcerting” for satan. In a verse in the Qur'an, God states that ‘satan takes hypocrites under control with gaining mastery over them’ and then ‘makes them forget the remembrance of God’:

Satan has gained mastery over them and made them forget the remembrance of God. Such people are the party of satan. No indeed! It is the party of satan who are the losers. (Surat al-Mujadala, 19)

Hypocrites avoid places where God is remembered with the inspiration of satan whom they see as their guide and leader. Therefore, they try not to speak about the beautiful moral values of God, God’s splendid creation, obligations of Muslims according to moral values of the Qur'an, goodness and wisdom in destiny, and the responsibilities of Muslims as much as possible.

When God is remembered where there are hypocrites, they instantly cast down, fade and feel unwell. Distress encompasses all their souls. An evil soul encircles them in a minute. An evil expression appears suddenly on their faces getting gloomy and dark. Then hypocrites try to make people understand how bored they are. In the Qur’an, this evil characteristic of hypocrites who don’t have faith in the hereafter is described in a verse: “When God is mentioned on His own, the hearts of those who do not believe in the hereafter shrink back shuddering, but when others apart from Him are mentioned, they jump for joy.’’ (Surah az-Zumar, 45)

In another verse, God reveals how severely hypocrites get disturbed when the Qur'an is recited next to them:

We have placed covers on their hearts, preventing them from understanding it, and heaviness in their ears. When you mention your Lord alone in the Qur’an, they turn their backs and run away. (Surat al-Isra’, 46)

Hypocrites can’t stand hearing God’s Almighty Power that our Lord is All-Powerful, and the fact that there is no other god than Him. As it is stated in the Qur'an, they never want to listen to these truths and run away from that place dismally ‘in a crazed condition with rage’. Conversations on religion make hypocrites very angry and disturb them –surely God is beyond this. Hypocrites show their uneasiness and nuisance with grunting and starting to swing their feet. They get totally strained from stress and their souls become completely uncomfortable. The evil sickness in their souls show up with the uneasiness they go through and physical reactions they give when God is remembered.

It is clear that, a person harps on the one who he loves the most, who he thinks most and whom he wants to be the closest. Since Muslims’ most beloved Being is our Lord, and as they seek refugee in God, ask help from Him and try to attain His approval in everything they do; believers always remember God’s Almighty and Exalted Names.

On the other hand, hypocrites always harp on evil ideas, logic that is incompatible with the Qur'an, irreligious talks, negative and ugly words, impertinences and vileness since their hearts are always with satan.

Satan makes use of hypocrites in this way to cause uneasiness, unrest, commotion and disturbance among Muslims; he verbalizes his own philosophy from their mouths. However, this only turns against the hypocrite and the only one who gets hurt from this is the hypocrite himself. Vicious thoughts their negative, evil world and dark mind produce hassles only hypocrites. As retribution of living away from God’s path, even though they are at a place together with Muslims that is like heaven with all its spiritual and ostensible blessings, hypocrites live a wailful, unhappy life as if they are already in hell.

Hypocrites don’t want to mention religious subjects whereas they are quite zealous and proficient on talking about worldly matters

Hypocrites who rarely remember God and carefully avoid places where God is praised have another remarkable feature. Hypocrites deplore and suffer torment from religious subjects while they astoundingly feel relieved as worldly matters are discussed. While anything that reminds him of God, the hereafter, being conscientious and following moral values of the Qur'an is a nuisance for him, matters that make him forget God and religion vivify him ‘almost as a sap’. A verse in the Qur’an describes how hypocrites get relieved and freshen while subjects other than God are mentioned; “When God is mentioned on His own, the hearts of those who do not believe in the hereafter shrink back shuddering, but when others apart from Him are mentioned, they jump for joy.’ (Surat az-Zumar, 45)

Although hypocrites tell they have faith in God with their tongue, they either have a very weak faith in the hereafter or they do not believe at all. Therefore the important thing for them is only the life in this world. Every detail of this life is very important for them. World’s leading countries, showy cities, people from those places, most respected foreign languages, politicians, artists, writers of prominent countries and the ideas they support are all crucial for hypocrites. Even if they can’t go to those places and don’t know these people personally, inquiring about them makes them very excited because hypocrites see all of these as a part of their future. Indeed, what refreshes and revives them is the dream of being respected worldwide, reaching an eminent office, coming together with those whom they admire the most and being one of them. Therefore when such topics are of concern, hypocrites let their tongue run. Hypocrites who cannot utter a few sentences when the subject is remembering God, and who don’t even become grateful when they see a blessing or are saved from a trouble; start talking incessantly when it is a worldly matter which they consider as their future. Their joy and happiness come into its own instantly. They even mention the most unnecessary details for hours.

Hypocrites are also very talented at keeping such worldly information in their minds and narrating them appealingly. In the Qur'an, God reported this hypocritical feature in verses as following:

When you see them, their outward form appeals to you, and if they speak you listen to what they say. But they are like propped-up planks of wood. They imagine every cry to be against them. They are the enemy, so beware of them. God fight them! How they are perverted! (Surat al-Munafiqun, 4)

Among the people there is someone whose words about the life of the world excite your admiration, and he calls God to witness what is in his heart, while he is in fact the most hostile of adversaries. (Surah Al-Baqara, 204)

God reveals ‘hypocrites’ evil talent on topics apart from religion’ with the statement “if they speak you listen to what they say.’’ In the other verse, God informs, “there is someone whose words about the life of the world excite your admiration.’’ It means that hypocrites can talk on subjects related to worldly matters very fluently and appealingly.

On the other hand ‘conversations on religion’ don’t excite hypocrite’s attention or delight him. But they eagerly mention art, painting, sculpture, wealth, money, fashion, clothes, accessories, hair care, sports, houses, cars, foods and drinks for hours. They open out on inutile subjects such as a television show, a gossip on papers or who followed who on social media. There is surely nothing wrong about talking on such matters. But, what attracts attention is how they lack the eagerness and capability they display for religious topics.

As it is declared in the verse with statement “excite your admiration’’; hypocrites may use a manner which can attract people who don’t have profound faith and do not evaluate all these in line with moral values of Muslims. Hypocrites are very skillful at this. They can keep all detailed information about these subjects in their minds. They have a broad perspective on talking about useless and pointless matters. However, God also reveals that hypocrites are “like propped-up planks of wood”. Therefore, ‘it is a useless and hollow talent’. It does no good for either themselves, or any other one. Hypocrites’ way of empty talk or speaking on nonsense may be described as ‘babbling’. They don’t use such information in an erudite way for an auspicious purpose. They only show a disturbing and repellent character who make nonsensical talk when they are with aimless people who embrace a similar mindset.

A sincere believer gets disturbed if he sees someone coming next to Muslims and wasting their time talking on such nonsense or trivial topics. Similarly, if someone goes next to hypocrite just to try him, and praise God in a candid and sincere manner, hypocrites suffer a great torment. It is the most insufferable and agonizing subject for them. When there is a mention of God and religion, they go pale, despond and become unhappy. As it is stated in the Qur'an; “… they run from the Reminder like panicked donkeys fleeing from a lion’’ (Surah al- Muddaththir, 49-50-51), when they hear the mention of God they ‘they run away like panicked donkeys’. But when there is a subject apart from religion and related to worldly interests, it is clearly seen that they open and cheer up and become brisk.

With the following verse in the Qur'an; “But there are some people who trade in distracting tales to misguide people from God’s Way knowing nothing about it and to make a mockery of it. Such people will have a humiliating punishment.” (Surah Luqman, 6), God reveals that hypocrites’ aim with these ‘empty and pointless’ speech is ‘constraining Muslims from living the moral values of the Qur'an’. Hypocrites want to prevent benevolent activities of Muslims with stealing their time and drawing them into empty conversations. At the same time they aim at dissuading ones who have meager faith or hypocrite characters and then detracting them from being a sincere believer.

However, God turns this evil effort of hypocrites into a mercy for Muslims. Muslims see the difference between the ones who praise God with profound love and the ones who avoid remembering God but liven up incredibly with empty and pointless speeches. Thus Muslims can recognize insincere hypocritical people among them and take precautions as they see who should be watched carefully.

Hypocrites don’t care enhancing their morality but their ‘appearance’ and ‘being admired’ are vital for them

In the Qur'an, God informs us of hypocrites as, ‘When you see them, their outward form appeals to you’:

When you see them, their outward form appeals to you, and if they speak you listen to what they say. But they are like propped-up planks of wood. (Surat al-Munafiqun, 4)

With the statement ‘outward form’, the measures of ignorant people that are ‘based only on appearance' such as ‘wealth, flashiness, vanity, physical care, modernity and quality’ are remarked. Indeed ‘appearance and being admired’ are two crucial subjects for the hypocrite. He is the one who does not believe in God, who does not work for attaining God’s approval; his most valuable treasure is his ‘body’ and his ‘brain’ in order to use his body in the most efficient way. But as it is known, wisdom is a blessing God only grants for sincere believers. In the Qur'an, this truth is stated as follows:

You who have faith! If you have fear of God, He will grant you a criterion ( furqan, to judge between right and wrong) and erase your bad actions from you and forgive you. God’s favor is indeed immense. (Surat al-Anfal, 29)

Our Lord grants people a wisdom and cognizance to judge between ‘right or wrong’ and ‘good or bad’ only if those people are afraid and beware of God with respect and deep love. Therefore this Muslim characteristic doesn’t exist in hypocrite characters who have only weak faith in God. Their wisdom is incredibly weak. But as a trap of God, they are unaware of this situation. Despite that, they assume themselves to be wiser than everyone around them. But the thing they see as wisdom in their system is only ‘intelligence’, which is created as a body function by God.

Hypocrites try to get the utmost benefit from worldly desires by using their ordinary intelligence and body. As they don’t have faith in God’s eternal Wisdom and Power, they assume that they will reach those benefits independently from God. Therefore they consider their bodies, which are their only belonging to be very precious. They care about their bodies not because they see it as a beautiful blessing and favor from God or to use it in the way of God. They attach significance to their bodies not to have health and wellness but because they care about it as an independent enjoyment. They think that as much as they care about themselves, they bedeck their body and present themselves as different and important people, so they will be able to influence people deeply. They imagine this way they will be able to win unbelievers’ favor, receive their appreciation, they will be shown respect and as a result of all these they will reach worldly positions they desire covetously. Therefore, God informs in the verse that ‘When you see them, their outward form appeals to you’.

For hypocrites who have no fear of God and belief in the hereafter, enhancing moral values won’t serve their purposes and it is an insignificant subject. Besides, hypocrites don’t appreciate ‘good moral values in compliance with the Qur'an’. Their only desire is to practice evil conduct, to be proficient on irreligious tactics and methods that they can sneakily execute among Muslims, and to possess a devious intelligence to do all these. Thus they are not concerned with morality issues. But they hang on to their bodies covetously. Keeping their bodies young, spry, healthy and strong is one of the most important targets of hypocrites and one of the things that they care about the most.

Of course, a Muslim also does his best to preserve his body in the most powerful, healthy and beautiful way. Being modern, soignée, beautiful and possessing high quality, are grandeurs that Muslims attach importance to. But hypocrites show an insane greed for it. And hypocrites’ ambition is not for using his body in the way of God or for a beneficial life that God will be pleased with. They are meticulous for their body care because of their denial of heaven. Hypocrites are only committed to the life in this world that they presume will last eternally. They try to rejuvenate their bodies and make it ostentatious in order to forget that deaths, illnesses and elderliness are parts of this worldly life.

They can’t comprehend the fact that an empty body without wisdom, faith, moral values of the Qur'an and conscience has no beauty.They spend their whole power and energy only to perfect their appearance and preserve their form. However, one day hypocrites will die just as any other person and their body will decay and decompose into soil. Only their conduct for God, their faith and their practices in this world will remain. But hypocrites whose insight are limited, are unaware of all these truths. Thus, they can’t comprehend.