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Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Those Who Appear to Be Sincere but Aren't - Fear From Them Hypocrisy (Part 13)

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbalee [may Allaah have Mercy on him] said:

Chapter: Those Who Appear To Be Sincere but Conceal Animosity are From the Attributes of the Hypocrites

From the types of spreading corruption is to promote sin whilst appearing to be sincere in advice. It may be presumed from such people that they wish to seek rectification however their interior motives are to spread corruption and harm. These are the brothers of the hypocrites, those who Allaah has chastised in His Book in a collection of places. They have been rebuked for their apparent state of sincerity in speech and in deed whilst hiding the intent of socializing with one another in order to spread mischief and corruption. Such characteristics have been included in the description of the hypocrites in Surah at-Tawbah, a Soorah that details the attributes of the hypocrites and exposes their evil characteristics:

“And as for those who put up a mosque by way of harming and disbelief, and to disunite the believers, and as an outpost for those who warred against Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad ) aforetime, they will indeed swear that their intention is nothing but good. Allah bears witness that they are certainly liars.” [at-Tawbah 9:107]

And He Said:

“Think not that those who rejoice in what they have done (or brought about), and love to be praised for what they have not done,- think not you that they are rescued from the torment, and for them is a painful torment.” [aal ‘Imraan 3:188]

This latter Aayah was revealed regarding the Jews when the Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] called them and asked them about something. Instead of informing him, they hid it and told him something else whilst apparently showing compliance to the command of the Prophet. When they realized that they had got away with hiding the piece of information that they thought they had hid from the Prophet, they began to praise one another by thinking that they had befooled the Prophet and thus they rejoiced. However, this Aayah was revealed in exposing their plot and informing the Prophet about what they had hidden. This interpretation of the Aayah was mentioned by Ibn ‘Abbaas [may Allaah be Pleased with him] in al-Bukhaaree and Muslim.

It is also narrated on that Aboo Sa’eed al-Khudree [may Allaah be Pleased with him] stated that the Aayah was revealed in a particular scenario. He said, “That it was revealed about a man from the hypocrites. When the Prophet intended to leave for a particular military expedition, the hypocrites remained behind. As the Prophet didn’t rebuke them, they thought that they had escaped military duty and thus rejoiced. When the Prophet returned from the battle, they sought to be excused by the Prophet by presenting justifications for not partaking; they swore oaths, and when they were excused, they loved the praise they received for something they didn’t do (i.e. they loved the self-praise they gave each other for the lack of action)[1].”

So these characteristics are from that which are common between the Jews and the hypocrites; to show something whilst hiding the opposite, whether this be in speech or action. They make apparent the face of goodness and kind intent, however they only accompany you with the intent of spreading corruption yet their inner-selves are intent on rejoicing to the idea that they have hidden their corrupt objectives. Their apparent practices show piety and a good objective and thus they receive praise for it, whereas their inner objective is corrupt. With this, they feel that they have won in their plot to deceive.

Whoever has such an objective is included in the Aayaat quoted above, thus it is absolutely necessary for one to be warned of a severe punishment.

For example, if there is a person who wishes to accuse another of a mistake, he wants to dispraise him and seeks to make his fault apparent to the people, so that they may abandon him - the intent here is to love to see the person in error to fall into harm. Such behaviour also exemplifies ones hatred towards them so that people will overcome him and strip him of his status and/or wealth. These are all blameworthy intentions and consequences and one must abandon anything that would result in any of these outcomes. Rather, the intention to proclaim the mistake of another must only be for the sake of a religious benefit. 

Another example, if one scholar refutes an opinion of another notable scholar in a weak opinion that they may hold, we may find those who follow the refuted scholar seeking to create animosity for the one refuting the scholar they support in order to defend him. As a result, they claim that the one who is seeking rectification as being someone who is being disrespectful and claim him to be at fault for seeking to rectify, thus all those who have respect for the scholar who has made a mistake are left deceived. These people must be exposed and their harm repelled, because these people are plotting corruption and trying their utmost to tarnish the name of an opposing scholar. Their attempts must be blocked out, in order to defend the oppressed scholar and removing from him harm is an act of worship that one obeys Allaah, the Most High, by doing.




[1] Both of these narrations of Ibn ‘Abbaas and Aboo Sa’eed [may Allaah be Pleased with them both] are reported by al-Bukhaaree (8/233) and Muslim (4/2142).

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