إِنَّ ٱلْمُنَٰفِقِينَ يُخَٰدِعُونَ ٱللَّهَ وَهُوَ خَٰدِعُهُمْ وَإِذَا قَامُوٓا۟ إِلَى ٱلصَّلَوٰةِ قَامُوا۟ كُسَالَىٰ يُرَآءُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ وَلَا يَذْكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًۭا
Innal munaafiqeena yukhaadi'oonal laaha wa huwa khaadi'uhum wa izaa qaamooo ilas Salaati qaamoo kusaalaa yuraaa'oonan naasa wa laa yazkuroonal laaha illaa qaleelaa
Indeed, the hypocrites [think to] deceive Allah, but He is deceiving them. And when they stand for prayer, they stand lazily, showing [themselves to] the people and not remembering Allah except a little,
Themes in this ayah
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4:142Ayah 1176
14 ayahs in An-Nisaa are strongly about hypocrisy. This is one of them.
← Previous on Hypocrisy4:141Those who wait [and watch] you. Then if you gain a victory from Allah, they say, "Were we not with you?" But if the disbelievers have a success,Next on Hypocrisy →4:143Wavering between them, [belonging] neither to the believers nor to the disbelievers. And whoever Allah leaves astray - never will you find for him a way.
Tafsir
Scholars largely agree on this ayah
The hypocrites seek to trick God by manifesting the opposite of what they hide in themselves of unbelief in order to escape His rulings in this world; but He is tricking them He will requite them for their trickery and so they will be disgraced in this world through God apprising His Prophet of what they hide and punished in the Hereafter. When they stand up to pray with the believers they stand up lazily reluctantly and for their prayers to be seen by people and they do not remember pray to God save a little for ostentation.
Related Hadiths
The most burdensome prayers for the hypocrites are the night prayer and the morning prayer. If they were to know the blessings they have in store, they would have come to them, even though crawling, and I thought that I should order the prayer to be commenced and command a person to lead people in prayer, and I should then go along with some persons having a fagot of fuel with them to the people who have not attended the prayer (in congregation) and would burn their houses with fire.
We came upon Anas b. Malik after the Zuhr prayer. He stood for saying the 'Asr prayer. When he became free from praying, we mentioned to him about observing prayer in its early period or he himself mentioned it. He said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: This is how hypocrites pray, this is how hypocrites pray, this is how hypocrites pray: He sits (watching the sun), and when it becomes yellow and is between the horns of the devil, or is on the horns of the devil, he rises and prays for rak'ahs quickly, remembering Allah only seldom during them.
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "No prayer is heavier upon the hypocrites than the Fajr and the `Isha' prayers and if they knew what is in them (in reward), they would have attended them, even if (it was) crawling. Certainly, I felt the urge to order the Mu'adh-dhin (call-maker) so that he would pronounce Iqama, then order a man to lead the people (in prayer), then take a flame of fire so that I burn (the houses) upon those who had not left for the prayer yet."
“The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ)
came
out to us when we were discussing Dajjal (False Christ) and said:
‘Shall I not tell you of that which I fear more for you than
Dajjal?’
We said: ‘Yes.’ He said: ‘Hidden polytheism, when a
man stands to pray
and makes it look good because he sees a man
looking at him.’”
The similitude of a hypocrite is that of a sheep which roams aimlessly between two flocks. She goes to one at one time and to the other at another time.
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