The Hypocrite’s Immorality and Ruses (6/7)

Hypocrites are very lazy when it comes to working in favor of Islam

As noted in previous chapters, hypocrites are with Muslims not because of their faith in God or their desire to live by the morals of the Qur’an. Hypocrites want to both benefit from the blessings Muslims have and at the same time strengthen unbelievers by transferring intelligence they have gathered about Muslims. In other words, they have completely different intentions and goals from Muslims.

Muslims live solely to gain God’s approval and love. For that reason, they always strive to act in a way that is pleasing to God in every single moment of their lives from morning till night and make their choices in favor of what is right, good and beautiful. They make their choices as per their conscience on every matter, not going in for their own comfort, egoistic desires or personal profits. God informs of this hardworking character of Muslims in the Qur’an with the following verse, “Those who turn away from worthless talk” (Surat al-Muminun, 3).

Yet, hypocrites persist their lives only for making themselves happy and protecting their interests in the best possible way. Therefore, they only work hard if their profit is at stake. If they have no personal gain, hypocrites never run themselves into the ground or put on effort for anyone. That is why hypocrites never want to help Muslims when they are together with believers. Since hypocrites have no aim for ‘gaining God’s pleasure’, they consider ‘making efforts for something that will not pay them back materially’ to be severe ‘foolishness’. For this reason, serving Islam gives them immense pain. Since hypocrites hate God –surely God is beyond that- they never want to serve in the way of God. And in a similar way, because they also detest the Prophet (pbuh), they abstain from paying service to religion. Thus, due to their hostility to Muslims, they do not want to help Muslims either.

In their own feeble minds, reaping benefits from opportunities of Muslims and doing nothing for God’s sake, is considered as ‘a great profit’ by hypocrites. To pretend to be one of the Muslims and not to be unmasked, sometimes they may lend a hand with a few things as a show-off from time to time. Even when they do it as a formality and just as a pretense, they go through terrible misery. In truth, they do not ever desire to help Muslims even a bit.

God describes this immorality of hypocrites as, “Leave them to eat and enjoy themselves. Let false hope divert them. They will soon know.” (Surat al-Hijr, 3)

In accordance with this view, hypocrites abstain from undertaking any responsibility that would be for the good of Islam or to the benefit of Muslims. They watch believers at a distance as if they are ‘tourists’ or complete strangers. With this attitude, they intend to give the message to Muslims, ‘This is your religion, your cause, and I have no interest in it. So, I am simply an observer’.

Of course, they never misbehave openly for whole world to see as hypocrites always come up with an evil excuse for whatever they do. This is because hypocrites cannot explicitly get across their mind saying ‘I do not wish to serve in the way of God’ while Muslims work in favor of Islam in the most active way and without stop day and night. For that reason, hypocrites have to find an excuse for turning away from making efforts in the way of religion as well as for their laziness. To this end, they make use of different tactics every single time and they are very meticulous in choosing these sly ploys so that ‘they cannot be proven the contrary’.

For instance, when hypocrites see Muslims working on something important altogether, they immediately vanish in case they could be asked for help and they would be obliged to give support. Sometimes, they avoid striving for God’s approval pretending ‘as if they were sick’. And at other times, hypocrites put on an act of “having fallen asleep” and not being unaware of the circumstances. This is another ruse of hypocrites to avoid helping Muslims. At times hypocrites remain as observers with claims that ‘they are really tired’ although they have done nothing exhausting. While Muslims are busy working, they pick up a remote controller in their hands and spend hours pointlessly doing nothing but surfing on TV channels. Hypocrites simply wait for time to pass by watching the street or the neighborhood. In addition to being of no use to Muslims, hypocrites try to interfere in their efforts to slow Muslims down or delay their work. They try to keep them busy by talking about some irrelevant task they are engaged in just for their personal gain. Hypocrites set out to offend Muslims by asking completely irrelevant and unnecessary questions. They even make fake demands just to tie them down and say ‘they are stuck and need help’. And this way hypocrites want ‘Muslims to help them’ for their redundant works. Through fake demands such as ‘can you cook for me, I can’t prepare a dish for my arm really hurts’ or ‘I have a sore back, can you move these items for me and put them in place?’, hypocrites attempt to make Muslims serve themselves even in their busiest times. The aim of hypocrites is hindering the auspicious deeds of Muslims through their false shows.

And sometimes when something is requested from hypocrites, they would say, ‘I don’t know how to do it’, ‘I have no skills or experience to do it’, ‘I would do it otherwise’ or ‘I have some other thing to do’. However, these are ‘the most classic and well-known lies’ used by all hypocrites who have ever lived so far. The Qur’an describes that the ferocious hypocrites living at the time of our Prophet (pbuh) wanted to avoid going on an expedition with the Messenger of God and said, “... If we knew how to fight, we would certainly follow you” (Surah Ali Imran, 167). The verse follows as such: “They were closer to disbelief that day than to faith, saying with their mouths what was not in their hearts. And God knows best what they are hiding.”

So, hypocrites who consider putting the slightest effort to spread the morals of the Qur’an or to support Muslims as nothing more than ‘foolishness’ and ‘idiocy‘ in their own words, are at a loss and ‘closer to unbelief’ as God reveals in the Qur'an. Since, hypocrites would definitely run to help their friends from unbelievers in joy if they were ever asked for help under the same circumstances. Assuming power to be with deep states or evil power groups in the world of unbelievers, but -in their own twisted minds-, not with God –surely God is beyond this-, hypocrites attach great significance to their requests. They want to pamper them and fulfill their demands in the most perfect way in order to be favored by them. They would never consider lack of sleep, exhaustion or not having adequate time as an obstacle. Even in the most difficult conditions, hypocrites would put their own work aside and try to satisfy their true friends within the society of unbelievers. In that case, hypocrites suddenly feel ‘insane energy and enthusiasm’ that they never display when they are with Muslims. They would even offer them help when they do not ask for it just to draw their attention and gain their favor.

While hypocrites exhibit this ingratiating tendency for drawing close to unbelievers, they are glad to do sit back in treachery when they are with Muslims. God gives examples from the sick character of hypocrites that lived at the time of our Prophet (pbuh) in Surat at-Tawba saying, “Those who were left behind were glad to stay behind the Messenger of God”, and describes the perfidy of hypocrites to Muslims. And God informs that this evil rejoice of hypocrites will turn into an eternal torment in the hereafter:

Those who were left behind were glad to stay behind the Messenger of God. They did not want to make efforts with their wealth and themselves in the Way of God. They said, ‘Do not go out to fight in the heat.’ Say: ‘The Fire of Hell is much hotter, if they only understood.’ (Surat at-Tawba, 81)

Hypocrites pretend they are ‘incompetent’ near Muslims, whereas they are highly skillful and motivated in pleasing unbelievers

Hypocrites dedicate their whole lives, means and energy to insidiously struggle against Muslims. That is why they would never want to be in a position that will deal a blow on their goals or make their attempts go down the drain. As they are determined to fight against Muslims lifelong, they never agree to being involved in an activity that will strengthen and benefit Muslims or religion.

As a result, hypocrites never wish to see themselves working for the good of Islam and Muslims even a bit. They play all kinds of tricks and hatch schemes in order to avoid any effort that would be in favor of Muslims, give them success and aide them and facilitate their activities. One of the sinister methods adopted by hypocrites for this purpose is to present himself as ‘incapable and incompetent’.

All hypocrites who have ever lived throughout history have made use of this evil excuse; and while they tried to present themselves as Muslims, on the other hand, they resorted to any perfidious trick just to avoid serving for Islam and Muslims. In the Qur’an, these insincere attitudes and speeches of hypocrites who lived at the time of our Prophet (pbuh) are mentioned as examples, and one of them is as follows:

What assailed you on the day the two armies met was by God’s permission, so that He would know the believers, and so that He would know the hypocrites. They were told, ‘Come and fight in the Way of God or at least help defend us.’ They said, ‘If we knew how to fight, we would certainly follow you.’ They were closer to disbelief that day than to faith, saying with their mouths what was not in their hearts. And God knows best what they are hiding. (Surah Al ‘Imran, 166-167)

During our Prophet’s (pbuh) time, hypocrites did not want to make efforts in the way of Islam and they tried to avoid providing any help to Muslims. By putting forward various pretexts that could sound reasonable from outside, they were concealing their duplicitous position. When they were supposed to join war with the Prophet (pbuh), hypocrites tried to use their sneaky methods once again. However, they gave away their immorality, dishonesty and hypocritical character through their ‘distorted speeches’.

The hypocrites who tried to avoid going to war back then said, ‘If we knew how to fight, we would certainly follow you’, when our Prophet (pbuh) called for them to reinforce Muslims. By speaking these words, hypocrites tried to present themselves as if they were ‘incapable, incompetent people of no use and who did know how to fight’. Yet, this was a total lie; they just did not want to serve Islam.

If it had been the unbelievers who made the request, hypocrites would have responded their call enthusiastically and joyfully performed the tasks of highest risk. On the other hand, when they were required to contribute for Muslims, they were trying to give an impression of themselves as if they were the most incompetent and unskilled people in the world.

Hypocrites living at the time of our Prophet (pbuh) put forward many other excuses to avoid going into a war. In order to be left behind, some pretended as if they did not know how to ride a horse, they were not strong enough to lift a sword, or they were physically not available to go on a fight. However, in the Holy Qur'an, God reveals that such excuses of hypocrites were ‘lies’ and thus He overturns ‘this evil plan of hypocrites put on scene for being left behind at time of war’. This is how God warns all Muslims who will come to live through every era about this sneaky strategy of hypocrites.

Indeed, one of the most important signs of today’s hypocrites is again ‘their attempt to be left behind with all kinds of excuses in order not to support the intellectual struggle of Muslims’. By all means, hypocrites are of evil intelligence and cunning nature. Therefore, when they do not want to do something, they would not directly say, ‘no, I cannot do it’. They always put forward an excuse, which is ‘false but difficult to be proven the contrary’. So, they would say, “I cannot do this due to such reasons”. When hypocrites speak this way, they in fact start implementing their plan devised cunningly stage by stage. When their contributions are requested for a work that may be for the benefit of Muslims, hypocrites do not reject it immediately. First, they accept the suggested work with an improvised show of great joy and false contentment. Then, by means of postponing this work for a very long time, they try to make Muslims forget about it. And in the meantime, they do not ever work on this topic. After sometime, when they are asked of the whereabouts of that work, they negligently respond, ‘I wasn’t able to do it as I did not have much time’. Through all that period, they have actually cheated on Muslims and put them in a difficult position in the last moment when they considered the work would have been accomplished a long time ago.

This is indeed one of the ruses the hypocrites carry out in order to give an unfitted impression. Hypocrites have so many other lies similar to this one. For instance, when they are requested to write about a topic, hypocrites claim ‘they really would like to help, but do not have the right skills to compose an article’. If they are asked to make a research on the Internet about something, hypocrites would say ‘they had no proficiency to make research and never had success in doing it’. Supposedly, hypocrites do not know how to write or how to search for something online. This time, when they are asked ‘to help with an image’, hypocrites would then say, ‘the program they need to use slows down the computer so much that they really cannot help’. There is no limit to the fake excuses, which are in reality only lies that hypocrites come up with. When a solution is offered to every single excuse they make, then they feel obliged to accept that task. But obviously hypocrites will come up with another lie to avoid providing the needed help to Muslims. They will either say, ‘they were not able to work on the project because they got sick’ or that “they spared a great time to work on it, but the result was not satisfactory’. Or, they will bring something of no use and claim ‘they really tried but that was all they could do’. Hypocrites will maintain that ‘they used all within their power but their knowledge was not enough’. Therefore, the result of their work will never meet the expected success.

Sometimes, hypocrites have to do something useful in order to disguise their true nature but even then, they are very careful about the tasks they will fulfill. They would never be willing take part in efforts which will offer a great benefit to Islam. Hypocrites particularly pick up minor tasks that will not exhaust them, or will not bring a significant support or benefit to Muslims, and are not vital in the spread of Islam. However while doing this, even for a little effort they show, they want to be greatly hailed by Muslims. In order to receive this admiration, they always mention each detail of the work they did in the most exaggerated way. Their aim is to make themselves mentioned in glowing terms and thereby emphasize the superiority they surmise they have. However there is no tactual success that the hypocrites do.

Despite doing beneficial activities the whole day, Muslims don’t mention their self-devotion since their aim is to attain God’s approval, not to receive people’s praise. However, hypocrites expect praise even for ordinary things such as taking their own dirty dishes to kitchen or tidying up the mess they make. Due to both their good morals and for the purpose of encouraging hypocrites to do beneficial activities, Muslims gush over them even for his tiniest effort. And hypocrites, whose senses of egocentricity are continuously fondled, do some insignificant activities of use, not to attain God’s approval, but to make their selves treated well. Thereby with this rational attitude, Muslims make hypocrites serve Islam. But as expected, hypocrites refrain from serving and assuming an important work by portraying themselves as incapable and untalented people.

And by doing so, hypocrites aim at discouraging Muslims with all their pretense so that they will stay away, and say, ‘Let’s forget about them; they cannot do anything’. When they are asked to write something, they use the most shallow and inexperienced style so as to prevent its use by Muslims. When they are asked to complete a task that is rather urgent, they finalize it within the longest period of time under the disguise of an unskillful person and in the least acceptable way. By doing so, they aim at getting rid of responsibilities to make Muslims say, ‘They cannot deliver it within short deadlines; we should ask it from someone else’. When they are asked for giving a speech, hypocrites pretend as if they cannot speak properly or cannot think of many ideas. When they are called to attend somewhere, they make a dozen demands and cause a lot of trouble in order to make Muslims regret sending them there.

However, hypocrites display ‘incredible talent and skill about anything that will bring them admiration among the unbelievers’. In other words, when they are in need of gaining the appreciation of unbelievers, ‘the hypocrites unleash, so to speak, a different person from within’. The person who was previously not capable of speaking properly, who could not write well, or concentrate on issues, and who was not able to fulfill tasks on time suddenly is replaced by someone else who comprehends all matters swiftly and accomplishes his responsibilities in the most perfect manner without even need of food or sleep. Hypocrites pretend to be incompetent and incapable about everything that is in favor of religion; however, they become very well -disciplined and skilled when they are supposed to act in treachery, evil and double-dealing.

If they were asked to write in support of the ideology of unbelievers, they would quickly complete and delivers it on time. They are all the time very ‘enthusiastic and energetic’ when addressing unbelievers with great competence and eloquence. They possess an absolute skill to adapt to the lifestyle of unbelievers. In brief, hypocrites who pretend to be a real fool and a tongue-tied person present a very tactful, daring, capable, smart and successful profile when they have something to gain from unbelievers. They perform a bestial effort to be appreciated by deniers.

However, every single moment hypocrites avoid serving in the way of Islam and consider themselves to be cunning is actually unfavorable for them. Every day they lie on the couch and look after their own comfort, observing the efforts of Muslims at a distance, their health, psychology, soul, heart and conscience are even more corrupted and darkened; while in the meantime Muslims who strive for God’s pleasure day and night live a healthier, more peaceful and happier life.

Hypocrites denigrate the success of Muslims while trying to present themselves as irreplaceable people with superior abilities

Hypocrites never want to serve Islam and support Muslims. But sometimes, they act as if they are doing some beneficial work just to hide their hypocrisy and to derive more personal benefits. At those times, they try to get the best of this situation in their favor. If they have done anything good, even if it's something minor, they try to keep it on the agenda as long as possible and announce it to as many people as they can. They talk as if ‘they are the ones who discovered that work for the first time’ and as if ‘they are the ones doing it for the first time’ although all Muslims have been doing it everyday of their lives ever since they became faithful. In this way, they strive to give the impression that they are the ones “who serve Islam most influentially and most actively; who are the wisest, the most vigilant, the most perceptive and the most prudent’.

In order to inflate their importance and to emphasize the so-called difference of superiority between them and Muslims, they constantly criticize the activities Muslims have been carrying out perfectly. In every opportunity they get, they try to emphasize that Muslims allegedly cannot achieve successful results; they cannot succeed in anything; they lack the wisdom to consider many things and are continuously at fault. They spread this discourse of theirs by passing it on to almost everyone they see. Then they start talking about how impeccable and excellent results they would attain if they were the ones carrying out those activities. They perpetually make unrealistic suggestions that would be impossible to put into practice and talk about how they could accomplish them quite easily if they were given the authority and means even for a few days or so.

The truth of the matter is that the hypocrites have no intention or willingness to do any work. Their only purpose is – in their own twisted minds- to overshadow the success of Muslims and to stress their so-called superiority. Actually, the hypocrites would clearly not lift a finger for something that would benefit Muslims. But since hypocrites are 'eloquent and talkative', they use this opportunity they have to create an unfavorable agenda in their own minds and praise themselves making use of that.

Hypocrites envy the success of Muslims a great deal and carry out ostensible efforts to prove that they can do better than Muslims

With the good services and auspicious deeds they carry out, Muslims only hope for the good pleasure and love of God. Apart from that, they expect no reward or appreciation from people. Their goal is to strengthen Islam and Muslims, and to make peace and tranquility prevail in the world by communicating the morality of the Qur'an.

Hypocrites, on the other hand, do not regard any of this as important, so they put no effort to this end. However, hypocrites are very jealous of the achivements of the Muslims, even though these achivements are in complete conflict with their goals. This is because emphasizing that they are superior than everyone else about everything is of crucial importance for the hypocrites. Coming across something contrary would cause the hypocrites go insane. Because of their jealousy, they try to destroy that successful image, and overshadow the success of those people who seem to be successful by presenting them as incompetent, irrational and unknowledgable people, all the while stressing their own –alleged- excellent competency and vast knowledge. They try every way to be given that same responsibility even though they actually do not want to contribute in any way to something that might benefit Islam and Muslims. To this end, they embark on an effort to downplay and humiliate –in their twisted minds- those who stand out with their success by stooping to every sort of atrocious methods including lies, slanders, nastiness and shrewish behavior. Their intention is never to gain the consent of God or to do something beneficial for Islam; all they want is to confirm their own superiority. They should be able to do better and achieve more than Muslims so that they can get the upper hand and show everyone that they are far superior. At the same time, they thus position themselves as special and unique people who are extremely useful carrying out essential activities.

Whenever Muslims are pleased with a certain activity carried out among them, the hypocrites, with the nudging of satan, go and pester those who are praised for these activities. It is of the utmost importance for the hypocrites to criticize those who carry out the activities that are widely discussed and considered as most important at the time and to stress that they are better than them.

For instance, if someone has written a good article and has been influential in communicating the message of Islam, the hypocrites instantly start looking for ways to criticize that article somehow. If someone else has decorated a place very elegantly, they instantly use a specific tone to underline that it is unfashionable and tasteless. Another one may have made a video and used high-end technology and high quality images for it: Hypocrites would immediately adopt a patronizing attitude looking down on them in their own feeble minds and with a contemptuous and scornful style saying that these are old-fashioned techniques and ordinary images. Then, with their evil but very feeble minds, they go on to the second phase of their atrocious games. They start saying that they know about those activities they have constantly been criticizing, reproaching and finding deficient and imperfect, more than everyone else and that they could do them much more effectively using the most perfect techniques. When there is a new activity to be carried out, they instantly jump in and say that they are willing to do it. For instance, if there is a water well to be opened, hypocrites move forward and say, "Let me do this." In this way, they gives the impression of being useful and by undertaking a work that is sure to succeed, they think they will become 'the architect of that success'.

But of course, the hypocrites’ intention is never to make an effort and spend time for such a work and thus to do something to strengthen Islam and Muslims. Their only intention is to try to present themselves as superior to others by being abhorrent, creating unrest and making a fuss. As a matter of fact, when they are told, "Alright, if you are better than everyone else, you may undertake this work," people see that they would not lift a finger and would not bring about the desired result. That is because in this way, they would have already achieved what they wanted all along. In a way that everyone would hear and know, it would be said out loud that ‘he is the most knowledgable, most competent one in this. And that is why he was assigned that task.' And thereby he would supposedly be proving his superiority. Even with these words alone, he would be gaining the prestige he desires and when he encounters successful people, he would have obtained the ammunition he could use against them.

As you see, like every other game of the hypocrites, this one is also ‘hollow and foolish'. It is obvious that Muslims will not form an opinion about a person with a single word without the sincere effort and good work to back it up. But the hypocrites imagine that Muslims will ‘think highly of them and will be immensely impressed by them’. With a greed for superiority and pomposity, they become blind as not to see their own foolishness.

Indeed, God is the One Who created the entire universe and everything in it and Who is the sole and eternal Owner of Power; all other beings besides Him are powerless and are dependent on Him. Therefore, no matter how much the hypocrites struggle they will never attain the superiority they desire. Throughout history the likes of Pharaoh and Nimrod have all burned with this desire of being the superior. Yet, none of them obtained that greatness they sought. Every single one of them was taken to the hereafter to appear before the Sight of God, leaving everything they have behind. God has informed us about ‘the insane greed for superiority’ that the hypocrites have and that will never be come true in the Qur’an as follows:

Certainly those who argue about the Signs of God without any authority having come to them, have nothing in their breasts except for pride which they will never be able to vindicate. Therefore seek refuge with God. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing. (Surah Ghafir: 56)

The Companions of the Ramparts will call out to men they recognise by their mark, saying, 'What you amassed was of no use to you, nor was your arrogance.' (Surat Al-A'raf:48)

Hypocrites are thieves and swindlers

Hypocrites are beings without fear of God. Therefore, they have no ‘moral, ethical or faith-related boundaries’ regarding life. Everything that is favorable to their interests is ‘right and good’ for them. And if something harms their interests, that is ‘bad and wrong’ according to them. Since they do not believe that God sees them all the time and that they will have to account for all their actions in the hereafter, when they are alone and assume that no one sees them they are unprincipled and characterless enough to carry out all sorts of immorality, deceitfulness and ignominy. This distorted outlook causes the hypocrites not to see any harm in stealing.

Throughout history, the hypocrites have always tried to take advantage of believers to the fullest in terms of material and non-material matters. They have harbored a strong jealousy and had an eye on Muslims' wealth. Hypocrites always looked out for an opportunity to seize or to steal the things Muslims possess. History is full of such examples of hypocrites who tried to take hold of believers’ possessions by stealing, usurping or fraud. There are many accounts mentioning this thieving and usurping character of the hypocrites in the time of our Prophet (pbuh).

In those times, hypocrites were also inclined to steal the properties and possessions of Muslims who were close to our Prophet (pbuh). Tu'mah ibn Ubairiq is one of the most known hypocrites in this regard. The accounts tell us that some of the verses of Surat an-Nisa’ were revealed upon the thefts he committed and the commentators explained the mentioned verses as follows:

According to the information given in the commentaries, the hypocrite named Tu'mah stole a coat of mail, but there was no accord on how the incident actually took place. Tu’mah claimed and swore that he did not commit this theft, but that it was a Jew who was close to the area who did it and presented false evidence to make Muslims believe in this lie. He spread flour from the bag of flour all the way from where the coat was stolen to the Jew’s house and thus created a trace to the home of this Jew. When the theft came to light and some Muslims were taken unawares and testified in favor of Tu’mah without knowing what had actually happened, our Prophet (pbuh) decided to defend Tu'mah after which God revealed those Qur’anic verses in Surat an-Nisa’ and commanded our Prophet (pbuh) as follows: “But do not be an advocate for the treacherous. And ask God’s forgiveness.” (Surat an-Nisa’, 105-106)

With this treachery, Tu’mah ibn Ubairiq openly betrayed God, Islam and the Prophet (pbuh). He stole and seized Muslims’ properties unjustly, then lied to the Prophet (pbuh) and the believers and attempted to deceive all Muslims by making a false statement under oath. He committed a theft and when asked he replied, “I did not steal it” and slandered an innocent person saying “he stole it.” When the truth of the matter came into view, instead of repenting for what he did, he fled and went to Mecca. Afterwards he rejected religion and abandoned Islam. Although he was later on captured, kicked out, despised and humiliated everywhere he went, he continued with his immoral character by swindling and all kinds of other schemes. He was kicked out of someone’s house where he took shelter in Mecca, then he moved to someone else's house, where he again showed his vile character and stole from them. In another house he went to afterwards he attempted to drill into the wall for theft, but the wall collapsed and he was trapped under the collapsed wall. According to accounts he got out of the ruins alive. He introduced himself as a merchant and blended in among a convoy of merchants and committed theft once again. Those who caught Tu’mah ibn Ubairiq after this incident beat him to death.

This hypocrite assumed that people of unbelief were good-natured, gentle and just people like Muslims and thought that he could easily do to them what he did to Muslims. Actually, Muslims showed such good character because of their fear of God. People of unbelief, on the other hand, thinking that they themselves would be the ones to ensure justice, wanted to take revenge on this hypocrite with cruel methods by torturing him and beating him up. With all that thievery he committed, God disgraced this hypocrite throughout his life. The goods he stole never turned into blessings for him and God turned each vileness he committed into trouble and disturbance for him. God showed Muslims that the lives of hypocrites always end in disasters, both in this world and in the hereafter.

All these acts of Tu’mah ibn Ubairiq clearly demonstrate that hypocrites are in fact tricksters, swindlers and cheaters.

The words of our Prophet saying; “… Their food is also usurpation and plunder. Their booty is by wangling.” (Imam Ahmed and Bazzar/Jam’ul Fawaid, Hadith No: 8110) also draw attention to this usurping, plundering character of the hypocrites and to their gaining income by wrangling, fraud and swindling, and warn Muslims to take precautions against such mischief that might come from the hypocrites.

Hypocrites want to steal not only Muslims' goods and property, but also their beauty, health, love, happiness, energy and time

The greed and penchant those with the characteristics of a hypocrite have for usurpation and theft is not limited to material things such as goods, money and possessions. They feel a deep jealousy for all kinds of spiritual beauty and blessings Muslims are given along with their wealth. These spiritual blessings Muslims live in all their perfection at every moment of their lives, yet the hypocrites could never experience in their own venomous and catty lives, would all be ‘heart wounds’ for those hypocrites. ‘Muslims’ youth, beauty, health, tranquility, happiness, the fact that they live love, compassion, taste of life, pleasure of blessings ultimately in the best way’ all cause an unceasing rage within the hypocrites.

For all their lives, the hypocrites ‘have never been sincerely loved by anyone’, ‘have never earned respect in real terms’ and ‘have never been a close mate or an esteemed friend’ for anyone. They have always been ‘despised, humiliated, used for interests by all those around them’, yet ‘have never been valued by anyone’. Muslims would of course approach those among them who show the characteristics of the hypocrites with compassion, show love to them as a religious duty and make an effort for their finding the true path as well. However, that would not be like the sincere and ardent love that Muslims have for one another. The hypocrites who are perfectly aware of this fact would be consumed with rage, grudge and jealousy as they see the joy, happiness, tranquility Muslims enjoy and their profound love, respect, loyalty and devotion for one another; the hypocrites would try to prevent this with all the means they have.

Especially those whom Muslims love the most and are devoted to with loyalty such as the prophets and messengers are those whom the hypocrites ‘envy the most’ and ‘want to steal blessings from primarily’. The ardent love, respect, reverence and deep loyalty Muslims feel towards the prophets; the fact that prophets’ wives are devoted to them with a great love and passion, and that they wouldn't want to leave them not for a moment neither in this world nor in the Hereafter, turn in to an agonizing torment for hypocrites. Therefore, the hypocrites do their best to be able to steal their happiness, joy, love and friendship. Hypocrites want to create unrest, edginess and disturbance between Muslims and thereby steal their blessings and beauties by playing evil ruses, telling vile lies, adopting a quarrelsome attitude and by casting aspersions about them.

Another blessing that hypocrites want to steal from Muslims is ‘time’. Believers spare every moment of their lives in elucidating God’s greatness, beauty of morality of Islam and thereby doing auspicious activities. This is something that hypocrites hate the most and try to prevent with all their might. Therefore ‘they want to steal their energy and time which they would spare to auspicious activities and pleasant environments’ by causing trouble to stall them off and trying to make them busy with trivial things as much as they can.

However, as stated in the verse that reads; “... God will not give the unbelievers any way against the believers.” (Surat an-Nisa, 141), God will not let this ruse of the hypocrites be successful. With their superior wisdom, perception and foresight stemming from their faith, Muslims see hypocrites’ aims and immoralities, and defuse their traps with the morality of the Qur'an. Hypocrites' efforts on stealing Muslims’ time, peace, happiness, joy, love and friendship results in failure, unrest and heart pain on their behalf.

Samiri who was one of the vilest hypocrites in history was also known for his thievery

One of the most infamous hypocrites who made history with his thievery is ‘Samiri’. Samiri is one of the Israelites whose name is mentioned in the Qur'an and who lived in the era of the Prophet Moses (pbuh). The name ‘Samiri’ is an adjective-noun derived from the root ‘shemer’ which is a word that means ‘stranger, foreigner’ in the ancient Egyptian language.

Samiri was a ‘sculptor and molding craftsman’ whose family and entourage were gold craftsman and who was famous for manufacturing golden calf statues in Egypt. Samiri was firstly preparing a mold for these calves and then casting gold on these molds to make golden calves and he was making money selling them. He was very adept and talented on this and other artistic activities. Another feature of the calves he manufactured was that they were designed as musical instruments at the same time. These calf statues which were placed on high places were making a noise like a ‘calf lowing’ with the wind blowing on them. The noises coming from these statues, which were made leaving holes on front and back, were giving the statues a ‘realistic and metaphysical appearance'. Since Israelites were mainly making their living with ‘slavery, agriculture and animal husbandry’, these golden calves of Samiri and his craftsmanship were almost breathtaking in their complexity. They were greatly baffled and amazed by his talent.

At the time, ‘calf statues’ were irreplaceable elements of the Egyptian culture. The idol of these calves which were considered to be holy in Egypt was called ‘Apis’ -surely God is beyond this. Scores of calf statues that represented Pharaoh’s idolatrous religion were on Egypt’s main streets and squares. They were also placed on both sides of the road which was ascending towards Pharaoh’s palace. In Egyptian belief, a ‘calf was a symbol for possessing power, state and wealth’.

In the era of the Pharaoh, gold was also a crucial material and it was considered to be the symbol of power. In that period, there was a great admiration for gold among Israelites. In fact, every person has a liking for gold that actually is a blessing of Heaven. Samiri who had an evil intelligence and talent, made an evil robbery plan by using this love of gold people subconsciously have.

Egyptians among whom there were also Israelites at the time, were about to leave Egypt with the Prophet Moses (pbuh) in order to settle in new lands in which they would live freely, saved from the Pharaoh’s persecution and slavery. Right about this time, Samiri and his gang heard that the Israelites were about depart. They insidiously made a plan to commit an extensive theft in Egypt. Organizing the hypocrites around him, Samiri had them rob the palaces, homes, graves and treasures of the Pharaoh and his inner circle; then, along with this gang of thieves, they set off from Egypt for the Sinai Desert loading hundreds of kilograms of gold they had stolen on their animals.

During that time, the Prophet Moses (pbuh) headed for ‘Mount Tur’ to receive revelation, leaving his tribe and he left his brother the Prophet Aaron (pbuh) as his deputy. While Samiri and his hypocrite crew were taking the gold they had stolen away, the Prophet Aaron (pbuh) saw them. As he saw the amount of gold they carried, he suspected that they were up to something and stopped them. When he saw ‘hundreds of kilograms of gold’ they had, he understood that ‘they had probably obtained these with robbery’. But when he asked, Samiri lied and tried to cover his thievery saying “These are all mine, I’ve collected them in the course of time’. Likewise other hypocrites around him said “Yes, all of them belong to us," and supported Samiri. However it was very clear that such an amount of gold could not be theirs and that they got hold of that much gold by stealing. Indeed in the Torah, it is explained that Samiri got hold of all that gold by means of theft; “The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.” (Torah; Exodus 12:36)

Therefore, the Prophet Aaron (pbuh) immediately had a well dug and had the gold he thought was stolen put in there, and had it covered. His purpose was to have that well opened later on and return the stolen gold to their rightful owners.

However, this intervention of the Prophet Aaron (pbuh) didn't stop Samiri and his gang. Samiri took off to the desert again with his thief friends who were hypocrites just like him and went to the place where the gold was buried. They reopened the closed well, took the gold from there and hid it somewhere else.

On the other hand, Samiri and his hypocrite crew urged Israelites who had took the road to leave Egypt with the Prophet Moses (pbuh) to take the gold they possessed along with them. They convinced them by saying they would need that gold on the road to help the Prophet Moses (pbuh) and his entourage. So, people took their jewelry, their gems and other golden stuff with them; some of them took a little, while others took a lot. When they reached the desert, Samiri got hold of that gold the Israelites had brought by saying that ‘he will make a big golden calf’.

Thus, Samiri and his gang of thieves got hold of a quite substantial amount of gold by collecting hundreds of kilograms of gold they had stolen from Pharaoh and his men, and the golden items belonging to the Israelites who departed with the Prophet Moses (pbuh).

Samiri, who was talented in sculpting idols as a sculptor and molding craftsman, took advantage of the Prophet Moses' (pbuh) leaving his tribe and made a big furnace in a place out of the Prophet Aaron's (pbuh) sight. He melted the hundreds of kilograms of stolen gold he collected in this furnace. First, he made a very big statue of a calf from clay. Then he made a casting mold for it. He thus made a hollow calf statue composed of gold blocks by pouring the melted gold into the mold and then he filed and smoothed that melted, soft gold and made it flawless by polishing. As a result, he made a bulky and shiny golden calf statue weighing hundreds of kilograms. Along with the other hypocrites around him and people he tricked from his tribe, he placed this giant calf statue over a high hill, on a stand.

In the Qur'an, the fact that Samiri collected and melted the jewelry and gold of the Israelites in this way, is explained with the following verse;

They said, ‘We did not break our promise to you of our own volition. But we were weighed down with the heavy loads of the people’s jewelry and we threw them in, for that is what the Samari did.’ (Surah Ta Ha, 87)

Showing a craftsmanship that would impress his tribe, Samiri made the calf statue he sculpted from this melted raw gold bellow. In the Qur'an, it is explained that Samiri ‘made a calf statue making a sound like calf lowing’:

“Then he produced a calf for them, a physical form which made a lowing sound..” (Surah Ta Ha, 88)

Besides, in order to attract peoples’ attaction even more, he made statements like “I saw what they didn’t see’’ and thereby tried to show himself as ‘a person possessing a special kind of knowledge, someone who is informed about some secret knowledge no one else has’. He wanted to impress people around him by ascribing a mystical and metaphysical meaning to the calf. This statement of Samiri is explained in the Qur'an as follows:

He said, ‘I saw what they did not see. So I gathered up a handful from the Messenger’s footprints and threw it in. That is what my inner self urged me to do.’ (Surah Ta Ha, 96)

Those who saw that brightly shining calf were astounded. The lowing sound coming from the calf statue as the wind blew made the Israelites in his tribe feel a great admiration for Samiri's talent.

While making this golden calf statue, Samiri was also aiming to attract Israelites’ attention to that old ‘Egyptian culture’ and their ‘pagan beliefs they have had in Egypt’ again. That is because, among the Israelites who left Egypt with the Prophet Moses (pbuh) there were those who were still wrapped up in the idolatrous religion of the Pharaoh and Egyptian culture. In the Qur'an, it is stated that those people expressed their yearning for their old lives and pagan beliefs to the Prophet Moses (pbuh) by saying “Moses, give us a god just as these people have gods’’.

We conveyed the tribe of Israel across the sea and they came upon some people who were devoting themselves to some idols which they had. They said, ‘Moses, give us a god just as these people have gods.’ He said, 'You are indeed an ignorant people'. (Surat al-A’raf, 138)

And the Prophet Moses (pbuh) warned them by telling them that they were on the wrong path and reminded them that there is no other deity other than God:

‘What these people are doing is destined for destruction. What they are doing is purposeless.’ He said, ‘Should I seek something other than God as a god for you when He has favored you over all other beings?’ (Surat Al-A’raf, 139-140)

Samiri who perfectly knew ‘this demand of the Israelites’ and their ‘longing for the life that Pharaoh had offered them’ wanted to take advantage of this situation. Taking advantage of the Prophet Moses' leaving his tribe, he presented the Israelites the idol that they had been demanding from the Prophet Moses (pbuh) with the huge calf he sculpted from gold.

‘This golden calf statue that Samiri made’ which was expressed with the word ‘I’cl’ in Arabic, was a replica of ‘bull statues’ that were the symbols of the Egyptian culture. The word ‘I’cl’, which means ‘calf’ in Arabic, comes from the root word ‘(acele)urgency-(acil)urgent’ which are also used in Turkish. In the Qur'an, this word is used to purport ‘people’s fascination with worldly life’ and ‘their desire for worldly possessions’. Consequently, with the golden calf statue Samiri sculpted, in a sense he drew people from his tribe away from God and called them to be devoted to world. Jews coming from Egypt admired Samiri’s craftsmanship and artistry that reflected a return to their old culture. Taking a stand in front of the calf, they yearningly remembered their old culture that Samiri reminded them of. Since they were still under the influence of " the holy bull" culture (Apis), which was the symbol of the Pharaoh’s state and the pagan religion, they showed a tendency to return to those idolatrous beliefs. Moreover, due to this longing some of them wanted to return to Egypt to live their old lives and the pagan culture of the Pharaoh.

In the Qur’an, with the verse “And when We allotted to Moses forty nights. Then you adopted the calf when he had gone and you were wrongdoers.’’ (Surat Al-Baqara, 51) God informs us that those people in the tribe of the Prophet Moses (pbuh) deviated from the right path by following Samiri and ‘started to worship the calf by returning to their pagan religion’ (Surely God is beyond this).

After this incident, the Prophet Aaron (pbuh) warned his tribe not to go astray and called them to leave Samiri’s heresies and to abide by his word. Whereas, the Israelites insisted on these heresies and said that ‘they would continue to abide by Samiri and the pagan religion he called them to, until the return of the Prophet Moses (pbuh)’:

Aaron had earlier said to them, ‘My people! It is just a trial for you. Your Lord is the All-Merciful, so follow me and obey my command!’ They said, ‘We will not stop devoting ourselves to it until Moses returns to us.’ (Surah Ta Ha, 90-91)

After he left, Moses’ people adopted a calf made from their ornaments, a form which made a lowing sound. Did they not see that it could not speak to them or guide them to any way? They adopted it and so they were wrongdoers. (Surah al-A’raf, 148)

Lying to his tribe with the words ‘this calf idol was the real deity of the Israelites and the Prophet Moses (pbuh) –Surely God is above such thoughts- and that the Prophet Moses had left his tribe to look for it,’ Samiri made the majority of them worship the calf.

While all this was happening, God revealed to Prophet Moses (pbuh) what was going on in his tribe: "He said, ‘We tried your people after you left and the Samiri has misguided them.’ (Surah Ta Ha, 85)

Upon this, the Prophet Moses (pbuh) returned to his tribe. In the mean time, Samiri had stepped into action to ‘win over the community who were watching him with admiration' and to ‘shake their faith in the Prophet Moses (pbuh)’. One of the speeches Samiri made with this purpose is explained in the Qur'an as follows:

Then he produced a calf for them, a physical form which made a lowing sound. So they said, ‘This is your god – and Moses’s god as well, but he forgot.’ (Surah Ta Ha, 88)

Calling out to his tribe saying that ‘Moses forgot’, Samiri claimed that the Prophet Moses (pbuh) had actually been brought up with the Pharaoh's culture and the pagan religion in Egypt, but that he supposedly ‘forgot’ this culture later on. Thereby, he claimed that ‘the Prophet Moses (pbuh) had adopted this calf statute which he too had used once upon a time, as a symbol of power, government, glory and wealth while he was in the Pharaoh’s palace'. He continued his lies and said ‘they should all return to this great god of Egypt since the Prophet Moses (pbuh) turned away from it because he supposedly forgot’ (Surely the Prophet Moses (pbuh) is beyond this).

As a matter of fact, the Prophet Moses (pbuh) did grow up in the palace of the Pharaoh and of course received an extensive education on Egyptian culture, traditions, manners and customs. However, as God guided him to the true path and made him a Prophet, he turned away from Pharaoh’s deviant religion and lived by the true religion of God. Yet with the speeches he made, Samiri tried to give the wrong impression to his tribe that 'the Prophet Moses (pbuh) considered this deviant and pagan religion reasonable and rightful as well’.

Of course Samiri premeditated all his steps previously and made respective plans to show each phase of his dishonesty as legitimate, so that he could be successful. Even before stealing hundreds of kilograms of gold, before carrying them there, melting them and sculpting that giant calf statue, he had thought that ‘he would be able to exonerate himself with casting such aspersions upon the Prophet Moses (pbuh)’.

What Samiri mainly planned with all these multi-phased tricks was ‘to show his tribe that he was supposedly greater than the Prophet Moses (pbuh)’ and to convince them with the evidence he offered. His purpose was ‘to discredit the Prophet Moses (pbuh) and thereby to emphasize that he is superior than him with his intelligence, talent and speeches, and to replace the Prophet Moses (pbuh) as the leader of the Israelites’.

The next phase of Samiri’s evil plan was ‘to organize the martyrdom of the Prophet Moses (pbuh) to take his place and eventually rule Egypt’. In his twisted mind, he planned to provoke Pharaoh and his men in his deep state against the Prophet Moses (pbuh) so that they, he hoped, would assassinate Prophet Moses (pbuh). He was blinded by the ruthless ambition for superiority and greed for leadership. He believed that he was supposedly superior, wiser and more talented than the Prophet in every respect.

However, all of these plans that Samiri made with his evil intelligence went to nothing. Despite all his ruses, villainy and tricks, God nullified his sneaky traps. After he received revelation, the Prophet Moses (pbuh) returned to his tribe and rendered the ruse Samiri played, ineffective. In the Qur'an, a part of the conversation between the Prophet Moses (pbuh) and Samiri is revealed as follows:

He said, ‘What do you think you were doing, Samiri?’ He said, ‘I saw what they did not see. So I gathered up a handful from the Messenger’s footprints and threw it in. That is what my inner self urged me to do.’ He said, ‘Go! In this world you will have to say, “Untouchable!” And you have an appointment which you will not fail to keep. Look at your god to which you devoted so much time. We will burn it up and then scatter it as dust into the sea. (Surah Ta Ha, 95-97)

As it is explained in the verses, the Prophet Moses (pbuh) expelled Samiri from his tribe saying “the punishment you deserve in this world is to live untouchable -alone- until the end of your life." With the story of Samiri, God draws attention to ‘the hypocrites' greed for this world, to their ambition to hoard goods and to the fact that they can do anything including thievery, fraud and murder to attain these goals.’ Samiri who had been a member of Egyptian deep Ssate under the rule of the Pharaoh, was a hypocrite who was accustomed to thievery, robbery, usurpation, immorality, lies and dishonor even in those days.

However, Samiri couldn’t attain any results with his ruses and villainy; his greed for greatness caused him to fall into disgrace and lose everything he had. After Samiri was expelled from the Prophet Moses (pbuh)’s tribe, he lived alone until the end of his life. He was humiliated, degraded and despised because of the immoralities he perpetrated and he lost everything he had and ended up alone.

This was only the retribution he received in this worldly life. In the hereafter, as the requisite of God’s infinite justice, Samiri and all other hypocrites who choose insincerity like he did, will certainly have to answer for the vileness they have carried out.

The hypocrites are cowards; they reveal their true colors instantly in times of difficulty

The hypocrites are very fond of their comfort. Since they are insanely attached to this world, they are terrified of death. If all the conditions and means are in their favor, then they act along with the Muslims. So long as their interests are not harmed, they lay low and stay small among Muslims even if it is hard for them to do so; they even face up to doing many things they do not want to do for the sake of appearing to be one of them. They do not want to perform their daily prayers but they do. They do not want to do good to Muslims, but even though it pains them to do so, they do good when the situation calls for it. They even occasionally serve for them if they come up to that point. But if there is any pressure, difficulty or hardship on the Muslims by unbelievers, they instantly start to make ‘gain and loss calculations’. They consider what they would be gaining and what they would be losing if they appear to be with the Muslims. And they take into account that the possible hardships awaiting Muslims would more or less, yet definitely touch them as well. That is one of the greatest fears of a hypocrite; because they, themselves -that they value more than anything in the world- would be hurt. Right at this point, they decide to leave Muslims. In a verse of the Qur'an God draws our attention to the cowardice of hypocrites as follows:

They swear by God that they are of your number, but they are not of your number. Rather, they are people who are scared. (Surat at-Tawba, 56)

Living on the path of God and giving an ideological struggle on the side of the Truth requires courage in face of ordeals. When we look at the Qur'an, we see that all the prophets and righteous believers have been tried with severe ordeals and hardships. All these difficulties and ordeals daunt hypocrites because at the time of hardship there are many topics one needs to relinquish. When Muslims are faced with hardships, they sometimes sacrifice their possessions, sometimes their comfort, sometimes the time they spare for doing sports or for sleeping; they sometimes make sacrifices about their clothes, sometimes about their food, and sometimes they sacrifice all of those. But the hypocrites who have devoted all their lives to this world find this very difficult and terrifying. That is why when the hypocrites face difficulties they try to find another place for themselves to seek refuge in.

In the Qur'an, God informs us of the kind of excuses hypocrites come up with to avoid difficulties, as follows:

If it had been a case of easy gains and a short journey, they would have followed you, but the distance was too great for them. They will swear by God: “Had we been able to, we would have gone out with you.”They are destroying their own selves. God knows that they are lying. (Surat at-Tawba, 42)

The times of difficulties, hardships and trials Muslims face are actually very valuable times in which the hypocrites reveal themselves and show their true colors. Hypocrites might camouflage themselves among Muslims for years, but when they meet a challenge on the Path of God, they instantly show their true colors. Every threat, injustice, pressure or slander faced on the Path of God is an honor for Muslims. For a hypocrite, on the other hand, that would almost mean giving up this world. Accepting such a situation would mean their giving up their hypocrisy, which they would never ever accept.

Hypocrites are jealous of the heartfelt love among Muslims

In a verse, God says "Or do they in fact envy other people for the bounty God has granted them?" (Surat an-Nisa’, 54). As God informs us in this verse, the hypocrites feel jealous of all the blessings given to Muslims, be it material or spiritual. The thing they are jealous of the most is the heartfelt love Muslims feel for one another. A Muslim's loving another dearly and protecting and watching over another is something hypocrites would be insanely jealous of. Among Muslims there is a profound affection, an earnest friendship and a candid understanding of brotherhood the like of which could never be found among unbelievers. The hypocrites bear witness to, and are jealous of, this love every second they are with Muslims. Muslims' intense love for one another disturbs them. With various plots, they slyly strive to destroy this love and to set Muslims against one another. They try to harm Muslims' love for one another and disrupt their brotherhood, unity and friendship by picking up fights, lying, slandering, bandying about or making sarcastic jokes.

Not wanting the believers to live by this love, the hypocrites wouldn't want Muslims to spend time with their loved ones either. They try to stop people coming to Muslims and prevent their meeting. By drawing Muslims into unnecessary talk and taking up their precious time, by causing distress in their environment, they aim to prevent Muslims' meeting and spending time with their loved ones.

This jealousy of the hypocrites is drawn attention to in Surah Yusuf in the Qur'an. The fact that the Prophet Joseph (pbuh) was remarkably beautiful - even in childhood - caused his brothers to feel a formidable jealousy of him. Feeling enraged thinking that their father loved him more than themselves, they set a trap for Joseph (pbuh) and devised a plan to kill him. Yet, they tried to show themselves as ‘brothers who only have good intentions in their hearts,’ to their father. The truth is that they clearly wanted to do harm in a treacherous manner.

When they declared, “Why! Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than we are although we constitute a powerful group. Our father is clearly making a mistake. Kill Joseph or expel him to some land so that your father will look to you alone and then you can be people who do right.” (Surah Yusuf, 8-9)

It is clearly understood from the verses that the Prophet Joseph’s (pbuh) brothers were distant from religious morality and considered treachery, setting cunning traps and committing murder as quite reasonable and legitimate. Their claim to desire their father's love was a complete ‘lie’; those cruel and ruthless people showing the characteristics of hypocrites and secretly planning to kill a radiant, immaculate little boy, who is their full brother, obviously would know nothing about love.

Just like the Prophet Joseph’s (pbuh) brothers, the hypocrites of our time also feel extremely jealous of Muslims' loving one another and try to prevent this bond making use of any means. It should be noted here that their goal is not to experience the love they are jealous of; on the contrary they think that love is of no use because hypocrites believe in ‘relations based on interests’ not in ‘relations based on love’. If they can somehow derive personal benefits, that would be quite sufficient for them. Consequently their jealousy of Muslims only stems from their not wanting Muslims to live happily in blessings and peace. Muslims' being hurt, being wronged and suffering is what brings relief to hypocrites. The acts of jealousy carried out by the hypocrites, therefore, only aim to cause unrest for Muslims.

However hypocrites fail in this trap because Muslims are resolute in love and they live their lives seeking to earn the love of God. Consequently the effort hypocrites show in this regard would only result in their own rage, jealousy and unrest.

hypocrites try to suppress the love between muslims with lies and slanders

Love is what disturbs the hypocrites the most. That is because they may attain many material blessings with their insidious games and crooked methods but because of the evilness in their souls and their ignominious character, they know very well that ‘they can never be able to live true love’. In that state of mind, they are aware of the fact that they cannot love anyone and that no one would ever love them. And that is a grave rancor for the hypocrites.

This pain and ‘envy for a blessing they can never attain’ drives the hypocrite to ‘seek revenge’ by all available means. In a verse of the Qur'an, God informs us about some of the methods the hypocrites would resort to in order to harm Muslims and to take revenge on them:

But do not obey any vile swearer of oaths, any backbiter, slandermonger, impeder of good, evil aggressor, gross, coarse and furthermore, despicable; (Surat al-Qalam, 10-13)

As explained in the verses, the hypocrites are despicable, gross, coarse and aggressive creatures. They do whatever they can to impede anything good and beautiful. By fabricating series of lies about Muslims, slandering, tale-bearing, and swearing oaths falsely, they try to harm Muslims. With these despicable methods, they imagine that they can drive a wedge between Muslims, that they can set them at odds with each other and thus can wipe out the love among them. A hypocrite may go to a Muslim and say, “So-and-so said such a thing, I do not know for certain who he meant, but it sounded to me as if he was talking about you.” He may then go to another Muslim and say, “I have heard so-and-so talking about you; I guess she was angry with you because you left everything untidy.” And then he may go to another Muslim and say, “So-and-so didn't like the dish you cooked, he talked about what was lacking in its taste for quite a while.”

For the same purpose, they may slyly use matters that would not be possible to disprove. For instance they may say, “I saw so-and-so, he was looking daggers at you,” or say, “You weren’t looking that way so you didn't notice but so-and-so was looking down on your clothes.” Such words of the hypocrites are completely based on lies. Furthermore all these are in fact mundane and trivial matters about daily life; they are not topics Muslims would dwell on, exaggerate, devote their time, talk about or make lengthy comments on. But even with these mundane, ordinary topics, the hypocrites want to cause dissension and disunity among Muslims, cause resentment in their hearts and to harm their respect, love and trust for one another. As it is explained in the verse, the hypocrites play insidious games by backbiting and slandering, by tale-bearing among Muslims about one another, by lying, by making additions and extractions to the topics discussed and by twisting the meaning of something simple using exaggerated words.

However the hypocrites sometimes carry out their disgusting behaviors openly. By getting aggressive, shouting in an angry, snobbish and impertinent attitude, they start talking about how a certain Muslim is –allegedly– ill humored, malevolent and shady. Obviously all their accusations are nothing but slanders. That is why Muslims do not pay attention to any of their claims. But the rage, anger and jealousy they harbor inside do not cool down in any way, and they accuse Muslims of insincerity on account of their not believing their words. They accuse Muslims of being unjust, of believing the words of another party and unfairly protecting others. There is no end to their lies and their disgusting behaviors. Since they are unable to control their anger, they constantly cast the same aspersions about Muslims and try to defame them until they can create a negative opinion about them. What they want is to hear Muslims say, “Yes, you were right, this person is really a bad person, this person is crooked and insincere, we no longer trust or love him/her.” The hypocrites would only feel relieved if they could see that they succeeded to wear down that love.

In the Qur'an, God tells us that the hypocrites are also “impeders of good” (Surat al-Qalam, 12). One of their methods is their attempt to impede any kind of good deed with sly and ignominious methods. They would want to impede anything good and auspicious that Muslims would relish, that would be a blessing for them, that would make them happy and bring them peace. Since ‘love’ is one of those blessings that Muslims regard as most important, the hypocrites certainly try to banish this benevolence and beauty from Muslims.

However, the believers would never change their opinions about a faithful person because of some lies that are merely the products of an evil mind. On the contrary, because of the ignominious attitude they have adopted towards that faithful person and the perfidious lies they have invented, Muslims' love and compassion towards that particular person would increase even further.