Maariful Quran - Mufti Shafi Usmani RA - Vol - 1 - Page

Surah Al-Baqarah 2 : 8 - 20 124people, would reassure them that they had never left the way of theirancestors, and had been meeting the Muslims only to make fun ofthem.The eighth verse is a comment on this attitude of complacency andself-congratulation on the part of the hypocrites. They are mightilypleased with themselves in the belief that they can so easily make afool of the Muslims and get away with it, while they are, in fact, onlymaking a fool of themselves. For Allah has, in His forbearance andmercy, given them a long rope, but this is a provision for their beingthrown into ridicule. It took place like this. Since the hypocrites sawno apparent signs of divine punishment descending on themselves,they were encouraged in their complacency and rebellion, so that thecup of their iniquity was full, and one day they were caught. Allahacted like this in response to their mockery; so, the Holy Qur'Gndescribes this divine action too as a mockery on the part of Allah.The ninth verse shows the basic denseness of the hypocrites - howthey failed to make use of the ordinary sense of discrimination. Theyhad grown up in a pagan society, and knew very well what the way ofthe infidels was. Now they had become familiar enough with Islam too,and could easily see the difference. But, in their greed, and for thesake of petty worldly profit, they still chose disbelief as against Islam,and bartered away something as invaluable as 'iman (faith) forsomething as worthless, and even harmful as kufr (infidelity). Ingiving the name of 'trade' or 'commerce' to this action, the Holy Qur'gnsuggests that these worldly-wise men had no understanding even ofthe art of trading.The last four verses bring out the miserable plight of thehypocrites with the help of two extended similes. The choice of twoexamples is meant to divide the hypocrites into two kinds of men. Onthe one hand were those in whom disbelief had taken deep roots, sothat they had little inclination towards Islam, but pretended to beMuslims for worldly motives - the Holy Qur'an compares them to theman who, having found light, again loses it, and is left in darkness. Onthe other hand were those who did recognize the truth of Islam, andsometimes wished to be genuine Muslims, but worldly interests wouldnot allow them to do so, and they remained in a perpetual state of