Translation
O Prophet, struggle hard against those deny God (truth and justice), those who practice hypocrisy and be firm in your stance against them. They are destined to an evil place—hell is where they will reside. They swear by God that they said nothing whereas they had certainly spoken word of disbelief after their acceptance of Islam (peace and purposeful life) and sought objectives that were beyond their reach while God and His Messenger enriched them out of His grace which they deny and wish to find fault in. So, if they reverse their course of action, it will make things good for them but if they persist, then God will make them face the consequence in this life and in the hereafter. On this earth they will find no friend and no helper.
From among them are those who made a promise with God: If He gives us from His grace, we will surely dedicate some of it to charity and lead a righteous life. But when He gave them from His grace, they became miserly, forgot their promise and turned away. Therefore, He lets hypocrisy persist in their hearts till the day they will meet God—because they disregarded their covenant to God and lied (about their intent). Do they not realize that God is fully aware of their inner desires and their secret planning and God is the Knower of all that is unseen and unknown (to mankind)? 439
Interpretation
439 Hypocrisy is much more insidious than open enmity, as this conduct is full of deception and done in secrecy or in a way that gives a different meaning than its intent. There is a saying of the prophet that characterize hypocrisy: “When he is entrusted, he betrays; when he speaks, he lies, when he promises, he reneges; and, when he argues, he wrongs.” The world is full of hypocrisy in many level in our contemporary life, when some people deny global warming, refuse to provide living wages to workers, use money and power to usurp citizens’ rights, use alternative facts and outright lies to justify their causes or positions, abuse God’s name and His guidance to cause harms and destroy human dignity, use racism and hate speech to marginalize certain groups, and violate privacy in the name of profit, marketing, and national security. And the list goes on. People of faith and goodness need to stand up against such hypocrisy and struggle against such evils and misconduct individually and collectively. God Himself warns against such acts and reminds such people that God is watching, and none of their evil and deception is outside of God’s knowledge and view.
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REFLECTION
While hypocrisy is as old as human existence (the story of Abel and Cain), current levels of political, economic, environmental, and religious hypocrisy throughout the world have reached an alarming proportion. It is not only done by individuals but by powerful institutions like churches and religious organizations, think tanks, media, business leaders, elected officials, and even academic institutions.
ACTION
New laws and policies should be in place, those in place should be enforced justly and equitably, and abusive and unjust laws should be replaced. It is equally important to recognize that all of our stances on evil and hypocrisy are a compilation of individual stances on evils and hypocrisy, and each one of us needs to be mindful that our current legal, political, and economic will may not be adequate to safeguard against such evils. Individual accountability to God and to fellow human beings should be sufficient in deterring such tendencies and temptations if one wishes to be a decent human being and mindful of his or her meeting back to the Creator God.