Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “And when they meet those who believe, they say, ‘We believe.’ But when they are alone with their devils, they say, ‘Indeed, we are with you. We only take the believers in mockery.’”

The Shaykh : I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan. Allah the Exalted said: The subject of refers to the hypocrites. And means the pure believers, such as the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). with their tongues only, because Allah says in the beginning of the context of these verses: They say with their tongues, “We believe,” while they are liars. We testify that they are liars, just as they said to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), “We testify that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah.” Then Allah the Exalted said: , It was said: The meaning of the verse is meaning they separated from the believers, returning to their devils. It was also said: contains the meaning of returning, and this is the most correct. Based on this last opinion, the verse does not need a supplied word, so “khala” (to be alone) contains the meaning of returning. This is part of the eloquence of the Qur'an and the conciseness of its words, where a verb contains the meaning of another verb indicated by its object. It has examples, such as the saying of Allah the Exalted: The eye is not drunk from; rather, one drinks from the vessel. So why did He say “drunk from it”? The scholars said: The preposition “ba” means “min” (from), meaning “drunk from it.” This is the view of the Kufans. And the people of Basra said: Rather, “yashrabu” (drinks) contains the meaning of “yurwi” (quenching thirst), so they quench their thirst, and in that case, it is correct for it to be transitive with “ba.” So means they returned to their devils, and that contains the meaning of returning. And “al-shayatin” is the plural of “shaytan,” and the intended meaning is their masters to whom they belong, because the hypocrites have masters, such as Abdullah ibn Abi, who was a master in his tribe. His tribe would go to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and to the Companions and say, “We are with you.” But when they returned to him and his like, they said: This is an affirmation of their allegiance to him, but along with the affirmation of allegiance, they need disavowal of the believers. They expressed the disavowal of the believers by saying: Taking in mockery whom? The believers. And consider their saying: You will find it is a sentence affirmed with “inna.” And consider his saying: You will find it is a sentence containing restriction, meaning: We are nothing but taking in mockery. That is, our state with those who believe is only mockery, and we have no intention to believe.