Part 6

By Allah, these are the signs of hypocrisy, so beware of them! Beware of them before the judgment comes upon you: when they are entrusted with something they break the trust, when they promise they break it, when they speak they are not fair and just, when they are called to obedience they falter, when they are called to what Allah has revealed and to His Messenger they turn away, but when it suits their whims and desires they rush to it. Leave them to the subjugation and misery they have chosen for themselves, rely not on their contracts and trust not in their promises for they are liars,

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Among them were some who made an agreement with Allah: If He gives us of His bounty we will definitely give in charity and be among the righteous.’ But when He does give them of His bounty they are tight-fisted with it and turn away, so he has punished them by putting hypocrisy in their hearts until the Day they meet Him because they failed Allah in what they promised Him and because they lied.

Peace and Blessings be upon our Prophet, Muhammad, his Family and his Companions.”

ibn al-Qayyim, Madarij as-Salikin (1 /376-389].

APPENDIX 1 The Parable of the Hypocrites Ibn al-Qayyim on al-Bagarah (2): 17-20

Allah, Exalted is He, says in Sarah al-Baqarah concerning the hypocrites:

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17. Their likeness is that of one who kindled a fire, and then when it had lit up all around them, Allah removed their light and left them in darknesses, unable to see.

18. Deaf, dumb and blind, they will not return.

19. Or that of a storm-cloud in the sky, full of darkness, thunder and lightning. They

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thrust their fingers in their eats against the thunderclaps, fearful of death. Allah encompasses the disbelievers.

20. The lightning all but snatches away their sight. Whenever they have light, they walk therein but whenever darkness covers them, they halt. If Allah wished, He could take away their hearing and their sight; for Allah has power over all things.

Allah, Glorious is He, has propounded a parable for His enemies, the hypocrites, with a people who ignited a fire in order to acquire light and benefit - for they were a people on a journey who had lost their way. When this fire had alighted and lit up their surroundings, they were able to see the right path, they were able to see what would benefit them and what would harm them; but then, suddenly, the light was extinguished and they were left in darkness; all three routes to guidance were barred them. ‘Deaf; dumb and blind,’ guidance comes to a servant from three doors: what he hears with his ears; what he sees with his eyes; and what he understands with his heart; these people’s hearts are unable to comprehend, they cannot see, and neither can they hear.’ It is also said that because they gained no benefit

'Tbn al-Qayyim, MiftbDar as-Sa'adah [1/245-256] said, ‘Allah, Glorious is He, has described the denizens of the Fire as being people of ignorance, and He informed us that the routes to knowledge have been barred to them. He said, “They will say, ‘If only we had listened and used our intellect, we not have been denizens of the Blaze.’” {al-Mulk (67): 10-11] Hearing and intellect are the foundations of knowledge and by them does one acquire it, “We have created many of the jinn and men for Hell. They have hearts they do not understand with. They have ears they do not hear with. They have eyes they do not see with. Such people are like cattle, rather they are even further astray! They are the unaware.” |al-A'raf (7): 179] Here, He informs us that they have not acquired knowledge from any of its three doors: intellect, hearing, and seeing...

50 Characteristics Of The Hypocrites

from their ears, sight, and hearts; they were as good as those who had no faculty of hearing, seeing, and comprehension; and hence were described as such. Both these opinions are of the same meaning and go hand-in-hand. ‘They wall not return,’ in the light they had seen the path of guidance, but when the light left them, they did not return to that guidance.

Allah, Glorious and Exalted is He said, ‘Allah removed their light, placing the particle ‘ba’ before the word ‘light,” and there is a notable reason for this. That is that this usage serves to show that Allah has removed from them His special closeness that is reserved for the believers only. Therefore, after His removing their light, He neither stays ‘close’ to them or ‘with’ them. They have no place in His sayings,

Do not be despondent, Allah is with us. {at Tawbah (9): 40]

Dep SSK Js He said, ‘Never! My Lord is with me and He will guide me.’ [ash-Shu‘ara (26): 62]

“Deaf - dumb - blind. They do no use their intellect.” |al-Bagarab (2): 171] Allah, Exalted is He says, “Have they not travelled about the earth and do they not have hearts to understand with or ears to hear with? It is not their eyes which are blind but the hearts in their breasts which are blind.” |al-Hajj (22): 46], “We gave them hearing, sight, and hearts, But their hearing, sight, and hearts were of no use to them at all when they renounced Allah's signs and what they mocked at engulfed them.” {al-Ahgaf (46): 26?

2 Saying, ‘bi niribim,’ as opposed to ‘nirahum.’

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Ponder carefully His saying, ‘then when it had lit up all around them,’ how this light is clearly shown to be distinct and separate from them, for had it been a light that was intrinsic to them, it would not have left them. Therefore it was a light that surrounded them but did not enter them, it was something fleeting whereas the darkness was something permanent and intrinsic to them. Hence the light returned to its source and the darkness remained in its source, all of this was done as a proof from Allah and for an all-encompassing wisdom that none but those endowed with understanding can see.

Ponder carefully His saying, ‘Allah removed their light,’ how He did not say, ‘Allah removed their fire,’ such that the wording would conform to that found at the beginning of this verse. Why is this? Fire has both the property to give light and the property to burn, so its property of light was removed leaving only the property to burn and harm.>

Ponder carefully His saying ‘their light’ how He did not say ‘their glow (daw’),’ despite the fact that He said, ‘then when it had lit up all around them,’ employing the words daw’. The word dan’ refers, essentially, to that light which is extraneous to basic light. So if Allah had said that He had taken away their daw’ it would have suggested that only the extraneous light had been taken away and not the basic light. Now because light, #ar, is

> Tbn al-Qayyim explains this further in his Wabil as-Sayid, translated as The Invocation of God fp. 67], Such is the state of the hypocrites. The light of their faith has been removed by hypocrisy, leaving to smoulder in their hearts the heat of disbelief, doubts, and questionable practices. And as heat and flames singe their hearts in this world, so, too, on the Day of Judgment will God place them ina ‘kindled Fire that reaches up to the hearts.’ Such is the similitude of one who no longer goes through this world by the light of faith, who abandons it and removes himself from it after it had lit his way.

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the basis upon which daw’ is built, to say that the n#r has been taken away automatically presupposes that the daw” has also been taken away. This then stresses the fact that they are people of darkness and have no light in any of its forms: the Book which Allah has called light; the Messenger (4g) which Allah has called light; His religion which Allah has called light; His guidance which Allah has called light; one of His Names is ‘the Light’; and the prayer which is light. Allah’s taking away their light means that He took all this away from them.

Ponder carefully how this parable completely corresponds to the previously given parable,

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Those are the people who have sold guidance for misguidance. Their trade has brought them no profit and they are not guided.

how they acquired this misguidance at the expense of guidance, giving it away happily;* and here how they happily acquired darkness - misguidance - at the expense of light - guidance. Hence they have sold light and guidance and bought darkness and misguidance... what a wretched transaction!

Ponder carefully how Allah says, ‘Allah removed their light,’

“A person enters a transaction of his own free will ands free to buy, or not buy, the commodity. The fact that these people, without coercion, bought misguidance shows that they were happy with it. This is why the author makes a point of mentioning the fact that they happily bought it. Allah knows best.

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but says, ‘and left them in darknesses,’ mentioning light in the singular and darkness in the plural. The truth is one, and that is Allah’s Straight Path: the only path that leads to Him: worshipping Allah Alone in accordance to what has been legislated upon the tongue of His Messenger (#£); not with ones own desires and innovations. However the ways of falsehood ate many and this is why Allah mentions the truth in its singular form but falsehood in its plural,

Allah is the protector of those who believe. He brings them out of the darknesses into the light. But the disbelievers have false gods as protectors, they take them from the light into the darknesses...

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This does not contradict His saying,

By it, Allah guides those who follow what pleases Him to the ways of Peace. [al-Ma’idab (5): 16]