1. That is, although what they say with their tongues is true by itself, it does not reflect their belief. Therefore, they lie when they say that they bear witness that you are a Messenger of God. Let it be clear at this junction that a testimony comprises two components: (1) The actual thing that is being testified to and (2) the belief of the concerned person who bears witness to it. If one's testimony itself is true and one believes in what one utters, one will be truthful in every respect. And if the thing in itself is false while the bearer of the witness believes it to be right and true, he will be regarded as truthful in one respect, for he truthfully states his belief with his tongue, but, at the same time, he is a liar in another respect in that what he testifies to be true is by itself false. By contrast, if what he testifies to is true while he does not believe in it, he will be taken as a truthful person because he testifies to something true but he is, nonetheless, a liar in that he does not truthfully state his belief notwithstanding his claim. For example, if a believer declares Islam to be true, he is a truthful person in every respect. However, if while clinging to Judaism, a Jewish person claims Islam to be true, he no doubt speaks the truth but his testimony is false because he has testified to something in which he does not believe. By the same token, if he declares Islam to be false, he tells a lie but his testimony tallies with his belief.

2. The hypocrites used oaths to convince others that they were believers and faithful (Muslim and mu'min). They used these oaths as a shield to escape Muslims' anger. On account of their hypocrisy, they saved themselves against the treatment which Muslims metted out to their open enemies.

The reference here may be to the oaths which they usually took claiming to be believers, or these may refer to those which they made when their hypocrisy was exposed. In that case, they made these oaths to convince the Muslims that their misdeeds were not due to their hypocrisy. The reference may also be to oaths which 'Abdullah ibn Ubayy had made to contradict the report given by Zayd ibn Arqam. Besides these, it is probable that God may have regarded this statment of theirs as an oath by which they claimed that they testify to Prophet Muhammad's Messengership. "We bear witness that you are God's Messenger." This last probability has given rise to differences of opinion among the jurists. They were divided on whether one's saying "I testify" constitutes an oath or not. Imam Abū Ḥanifah and his disciples (except Imām Zufar), as well as Imām Sufyan al-Thawrī and Imām al-Awzā ī consider it a solemn oath. Imām Zufar says that it is not an oath (Yamīn). Two opinions are ascribed to Imām Mālik, and in one of them he considers it a solemn oath. However, according to another report, Imām Malik was of the view that if one says: "By God, I testify..." or "I take God as a witness and testify...", then this constitutes an oath. Otherwise, it does not constitute an oath. According to Imām al-Shafi'i, even if one uses the words: "I testify by taking God as a witness...", it will not be considered an oath unless he uses these words with the intention of taking an oath (al-Jaṣṣāṣ, Aḥkām al-Qur'an, and Ibn al-'Arabī, Aḥkām al-Qur'ān).

3. The verb sadd in Arabic is transitive as well as intransitive. Therefore, Ṣaddu ‘an Sabīl Allāh means that they do not follow Allah's way and hinder others from the same. Since Șadda is both a transitive and intransitive verb in Arabic, we have opted for both meanings. According to the first meaning, the verse means: "they turn away from the way of God" and also "they turn others away from the way of God". According to the first meaning, the verse would mean: "By means of these oaths they first plant themselves firmly among the Muslims and then invent ways to escape fulfilling the requirements of their faith and avoid obedience to God and His Messenger". According to the second meaning, the verse means: "They use their false oaths as a cover for committing evil deeds." Posing as Muslims they weaken the Muslim community from within; they find out the secrets of the Muslims and gather information about their secrets to pass them on to their enemies. They resort to all kinds of tactics to keep non-Muslims away from Islam and raise doubts and suspicion among some naive Muslims. Such was the conduct of the hypocrites who paraded themselves as Muslims for an open enemy of Muslims does not and cannot use these tactics.

4. In this verse "believing" means professing faith and confirming it in order to be counted among the Muslims. And "disbelieving" means not to believe sincerely and to persist in disbelief which they professed and practised prior to their claim of faith. What is meant is that when they deliberately decided not to follow the true faith without showing their disbelief openly and instead opted for a hypocritical attitude, Allah sealed their hearts. As a result, they were unable to behave like sincere and truthful gentlemen. Consequently, their power of understanding was lost and their moral sense died. Morally they were degenerates, for while following the path of hypocrisy, they did not realise their own wretched condition in that they constantly resorted to lies, cheating, deception and duplicity of behaviour and landed themselves in this unenviable condition.

This is one of the Qur'anic verses which clearly explains the meaning of the sealing of hearts by God. These people did not become hypocrites because God had sealed their hearts to start with as a result of which they could not accept faith, such that they became hypocrites under compulsion. Rather, God has sealed their hearts when they chose disbelief despite professing their belief outwardly. It was then that they were rendered unable to profess and practise sincere faith and good moral character and conduct. Hypocrisy was made easy for them in that they had preferred it for themselves.

5. According to 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbās, ‘Abdullāh ibn Ubayy was a strongly built, healthy, handsome and smooth-tongued person and most of his supporters shared these traits. Moreover, they were affluent people in Madinah. When they came to the Prophet's assemblies, they sat reclining on cushions against the wall and talked in a charming manner. From their outward appearance and manner of conversation, no one could imagine that these apparently honourable people of the city would be so wretched and degraded in their character.

6. That is, "Those who sit reclining on cushions against the wall, they are not men but are like logs of wood." This simile underscores that they are devoid of the spirit and morals which constitute the essence of humanity. Thus, by comparing them to blocks of timber propped up against the wall, it has also been pointed out that they are absolutely worthless because timber is useful only when used to make a ceiling, a door-frame or a piece of furniture. A block of timber placed against a wall serves no useful purpose at all.

7. This brief sentence portrays the state of their guilty conscience because they knew well in their hearts that, behind the facade of their superficial faith, they were playing the game of hypocrisy. They were always in fear of being exposed. So, whenever there was any noise or commotion in the city, they immediately grew alarmed and thought it was directed against themselves.

8. In other words, these hidden enemies are more dangerous than the open enemies.

9. That is, "Do not be deceived by their outward appearances and beware of them for they can deceive you at any moment."

10. This does not constitute any curse. Rather, it proclaims the Divine Judgement regarding them that they have become worthy of His punishment and He will certainly inflict His punishment on them. It is likely that God may not have used these words in the literal sense. Rather, in line with the Arabic idiom, He may have employed these words for cursing, condemning and reproaching them. The words underscore the serious wickedness of their misdeeds rather than a curse against them.

11. It is not specified who perverted them from belief to hypocrisy. This makes it clear that there is not just one but many factors which are responsible for their perversion. They were under the influence of Satan, evil company, and their own selfish motives. The perversion of some people is driven by their wives or children, others are by the evil elements in society or by jealousy, spite or pride.

12. Not only do they refuse to come to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to seek forgiveness but, on being told to do so, they shake their heads and dismiss the suggestion in a contemptuous and arrogant manner. For them, it is beneath them to seek forgiveness from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). They prefer clinging to their way of life which is a clear indication that they are not believers.

13. The same thing is stated in even stronger words in Surah al- Tawbah which was revealed three years after Surah Al-Munāfiqūn. In that Surah, addressing the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), God says regarding the hypocrites: "O Prophet, it is all the same whether or not you ask for their forgiveness. Even if you were to ask forgiveness for them seventy times, God shall not forgive them. That is because they disbelieved in God and His Messenger. And God does not bestow His guidance on such evil doing folk" (Surah al-Tawbah, 9: 80). A little further on in the same Surah, it was again said: "Do not ever pray over any of them who dies, nor stand over his grave. They disbelieved in God and His Messenger and died while they were transgressors" (al-Tawbah, 84).

14. Two things have been stated in this verse: (1) Supplication for forgiveness can be beneficial only for those who are guided. Even if God's Messenger himself prays for the forgiveness of a person who has turned away from guidance and adopted the way of sin and transgression, instead of obedience, he will not be forgiven. (2) It is not God's way to guide such wicked people who do not seek His guidance. When a person turns away from Divine Guidance, rather shakes his head arrogantly and refuses the invitation to faith, God does not have any need to bestow His guidance on him or implore him to come to the right path.

15. According to Zayd ibn Arqam: "When I conveyed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) 'Abdullah ibn Ubayy's remarks and he denied saying them under oath, the elderly people of the Anṣār, including my own uncle, reproached me. I felt that even the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) took me to be a liar and Ibn Ubayy a truthful person. This caused me great anguish and grief; it was the shock of my life. In utter despair I sat in my place, but when the above verses were revealed, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) invited me, held me by my ears smiling and exclaimed: "This young man was truthful. God Himself has testified to what he had heard" (Ibn Jarīr). An identical report is narrated by al-Tirmidhi (al-Tirmidhi, Kitāb Tafsir al-Qur'an, 3312).

16. That is all honour belongs to God in virtue of His essence, and to the Messenger in virtue of his Messengership and to the believers in virtue of their faith. As for the disbelievers, the wicked and the hypocrites, they have no share whatsoever in honour.

17. Now a word of admonition is being addressed to all those within the fold of Islam, whether they are true and sincere believers or claimants to faith who merely profess the faith with their tongues. We have explained earlier at several places that the Qur'ānic expression al- ladhīna āmanu is a term of address for the believers and, at others, for the hypocrites too, for they claimed to be believers. In other instances, this expression covers all kinds of believers in general. Only by considering the context can one determine which particular group is addressed and where it is addressed.

18. Possessions and children are mentioned in particular because they are mostly the reason why man turns away from the requirements of faith; for the sake of their well-being and interests, he becomes involved in hypocrisy, weakness of faith, sin and disobedience. Included in these two are any other worldly thing that engages one so much as to make one neglect the remembrance of God. Heedlessness of God is the root cause of all evils. One would not commit any misdeeds if one realises all along that one is not absolutely free and that one is a servant of God Who is All-Aware and will take one to task for one's actions. Even when one commits an error due to human weakness, one immediately rectifies one's way on realising one's mistake.