Are Hypocrites Irreligious?

Continuation of the book by Harun Yahya, The Secrets of the Hypocrites.

One of the most important features of hypocrites is that although they say they believe in religion, their personal conception of religion is incompatible with the Qur`an. The reason is that they insist on their own particular independent reasoning rather than the Qur`an. The logical webs of the hypocrites are described in the Qur`an:

Is it their intellects that direct them to say this or is it that they are an unbridled people?

At-Tur: 32

As set out above, the hypocrite claims to fear Allah, but his attitudes have nothing in common with those who really do fear Him. His aim is not to please Allah: On the contrary, he exhibits all kinds of behaviors that will call down Allah’s wrath upon him. Yet in doing all this, he will fiercely maintain that he fears Allah exceedingly and that all his actions are compatible with the Qur`an.

In addition, the hypocrite will appear to fulfill most acts of religious worship, and may indeed even carry these out. Yet there is a great difference between his manner of performing these and those of a believer—as well as his objective. For example, the believer performs prayers solely to earn Allah’s approval, while the hypocrite does so in order to show off. Allah reveals this behavior of the hypocrites in this verse:

The hypocrites think they deceive Allah, but He is deceiving them. When they get up to pray, they get up lazily, showing off to people, and remembering Allah only a very little.

An-Nisa’: 142

Outwardly, hypocrites and believers appear to perform the same acts of worship. The fact is, though, that believers “are humble in their prayer” (Surat al-Muminun: 2) and earn a reward for their observances. Hypocrites, on the other hand, suffer Allah’s wrath because of their insincerity and duplicity.

On the surface, therefore, the hypocrite is no atheist but rather, claims to believe in God and to abide by most religious observances. Yet he is still not a religious individual. He is devout only when it comes to his own conception of religion, which is the “Religion of Hypocrisy.” Yet because he seeks to distort religious moral values, even despite his sound knowledge of them, all his endeavors will be in vain in the Hereafter. Allah describes that day in another verse:

Their actions will come to nothing and, on the Day of Resurrection, We will not assign them any weight.

Al-Kahf: 105

This Religion of Hypocrisy is the religion of satan, who established his hidden dominion over people, seeking to turn them from the path of Allah and to dominate their minds in all ways possible. He urges them to do evil, and directly seeks to prevent their doing good. He possesses a most extraordinary logic, which—in the next chapter—we shall describe in full detail and reveal the connection between it and human hypocrisy. Hypocrites are well aware of this logic of satan’s, but to them it makes no difference. Although no hypocrite will ever say, “I follow satan and live by his religion,” still he will exhibit that same twisted logic.

Hypocrites are the party of Satan

Satan has gained mastery over them and made them forget the remembrance of Allah. Such people are the party of satan. No indeed! It is the party of satan who are the losers.

Al-Mujadala:19

There are two communities on Earth: those who follow Allah and those who follow satan.

The army of satan is a community of people who have forgotten Allah, Who Created them, and who follow in satan’s footsteps by turning aside from the true path. We can divide this community into various sub-groups, such as idolaters, unbelievers and hypocrites. Yet of these groups, Allah reveals that the hypocrites will be punished with the most humiliating torment. Hypocrites are a community harboring all the characteristics of satan. Before continuing to examine this, it will be useful to have a brief look at satan’s perverted logic.

First, we must concentrate on the least explicable of satan’s attitudes, his “mysterious rebellion.” In Surat al-A‘raf we are told that:

He [satan] said, “By Your misguidance of me, I will lie in ambush for them on your straight path. Then I will come at them, from in front of them and behind them, from their right and from their left. You will not find most of them thankful.”

Al-A‘raf: 16-17

Satan’s chief aim is to prevail upon people to rebel against Allah, as can be seen from these verses. He does all in his power and strives constantly to achieve that goal. Yet alongside his intense endeavors, there is another logic. The following verse informs us of this:

They are like satan when he says to a human being, “Disbelieve,” and then when he disbelieves, says, “I wash my hands of you. Truly I fear Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.”

Al-Hashr:16

As can be seen from the above verse, satan commands people to rebel, but he also states that he himself fears Allah. These expressions make his twisted logic plain for all to see. Not only does he rebel against Allah and encourage human beings to do so, but he also claims to fear Him. This of course shows that satan is mentally unbalanced.

One distinguishing feature of hypocrites that bears a close resemblance to those of satan is their mysterious rebellion. On the one hand, hypocrites are arrogant against Allah and seek to create strife, while on the other hand, they claim to believe in Him and the Hereafter and to be obedient to His religion, His prophets, and His commandments. In fact, Allah has warned believers against this very behavior of the hypocrites through various verses:

Don’t you see those who claim that they believe in what has been sent down to you and what was sent down before you, still desiring to turn to a satanic source for judgment in spite of being ordered to reject it? Satan wants to misguide them far away.

An-Nisa’: 60

In addition to this most obvious shared feature, the Qur`an also refers to various other similarities and relationships between satan and hypocrites, which we can now examine.

Hypocrites Take Satan as Their Friend

As a requirement of the verse, “Your friend is only Allah and His messenger and those who believe: those who perform prayer and give the alms, and bow” (Surat al-Ma’ida: 55), those who have faith in Allah perform a most important observance by taking only Him and believers like themselves as their friends. That is the main reason for their strength.

In the same way that believers adopt Allah as their friend and turn to Him in all they do, hypocrites take satan as their friend and guardian. The position of those who adopt satan as their guardian is revealed in these verses:

. . . He and his tribe see you from where you do not see them. We have made the satans friends of those who have no faith.

Al-A‘raf: 27

One group He guided; but another group got the misguidance they deserved. They took the satans as friends instead of Allah and thought that they were guided.

Al-A‘raf: 30

If someone shuts his eyes to the remembrance of the All-Merciful, We assign him a satan who becomes his bosom friend.

Az-Zukhruf: 36

As revealed in the above verse from the Surat az-Zukhruf, one of the main characteristics of hypocrites is the way they fail to remember Allah and remain spiritually divided from Him. Again, it is satan who encourages them to behave in this way.

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