Overview (Verse 137)

Vacillation Between Belief and Disbelief
 
After this double address to the believers, the sūrah begins its hard campaign against hypocrisy and the hypocrites, starting with a description of a certain condition pertaining to them at the time. It describes the attitude of some of them, which is nearest the attitude of disbelievers: “Those who come to believe, then reject faith, and again come to believe, and again reject the faith, and thereafter grow hardened in their disbelief God will not forgive them, nor will He guide them in any way” (Verse 137)
 
When belief in God is preceded by disbelief, this earlier state is erased by the latter one and the person concerned is forgiven whatever he did prior to his acceptance of faith. It is understandable though that one who has never seen the light can sink further into the darkness. But to disbelieve after having known faith and accepted it, and to do it time and time again, is the most cardinal of sins. It cannot be justified or forgiven on any account. Disbelief is a thick curtain. When it is dropped, nature establishes its links with the Creator. The lost one is returned to the party, the plant is watered anew and the soul experiences a sweet taste that it never forgets; that is, the sweetness of faith. Hence, those who revert to disbelief, time and again, after having experienced faith are in deliberate defiance of their nature. By choice, they prefer to go deep into error. Hence, it is only fair that God should never forgive them or provide them with any guidance. It is they who, having known the way and travelled along it, decided to be misguided, choosing darkness after having seen the light.
 
Unless a person is dedicated in his following of God’s guidance, he will never be free of the pressures of worldly situations, values, needs, interests and greed, or be unencumbered by aspirations and temptations. Nor will he feel the honour, dignity and exaltation experienced by a heart full of faith when he stands in opposition to worldly values, powers and authority or confronts unfriendly people, events and situations.
 
This is where the seed of hypocrisy begins to germinate. In essence, hypocrisy signifies weakness to hold on to the truth when confronting falsehood. Such a weakness is a result of fear and temptation, other than fearing God and hoping for His reward. It is the result of holding on to what may be established in isolation from the Divine system of life.
 
Here we see a clear relationship between talking about faith and giving a truthful testimony for God’s sake on the one hand and talking about hypocrisy on the other. This is added to the overall occasion provided by the central theme of the sūrah, which is the education of the Muslim community on the basis of the Islamic system, removing the remaining traces of ignorance, mobilising the believers against their human weaknesses, and leading the community in its battle against the unbelievers and the hypocrites. In this general objective, the line of the sūrah is evident and consistent from start to finish.
 
After the image given in this verse of a group of hypocrites declaring their belief then going back on it, only to declare again that they believe before denying the faith once more and then growing harder in their disbelief, the rest of the passage is devoted to a discussion of hypocrisy and the hypocrites. It is here that the campaign against hypocrisy starts, utilising different ways and means worthy of careful examination and study. This will show us how this Divine system works in practice, producing its effects on people and their hearts.