His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

"The hypocrites, men and women, are from one another. They enjoin what is wrong and forbid what is right, and they close their hands. They have forgotten Allah, so He has forgotten them. Indeed, the hypocrites are the disobedient." "Allah has promised the hypocrites, men and women, and the disbelievers, the fire of Hell, wherein they will abide eternally. It is sufficient for them, and Allah has cursed them, and for them is a lasting punishment." "Like those before you, they were stronger than you in might and more abundant in wealth and children. They enjoyed their share, so you enjoy your share as those before you enjoyed their share. You have engaged in what they engaged in. Those are the ones whose deeds have become worthless in this world and the Hereafter, and those are the losers."

This is the beginning of the report about them and a judgment from Allah, the Exalted, upon them based on what the verse contains.

So His saying, glorified is He: "They are from one another," means: in judgment and status of disbelief. This is similar to their saying: "The ears are from the head," meaning: in the ruling of wiping over them. Otherwise, it is known that they are from the head. And since it was previously mentioned: "And they are not of you," this report is appropriate.

And His saying: "They enjoin what is wrong," means: disbelief and the worship of other than Allah. The rest of the verse indicates that the hypocrites, concerning whom these verses were revealed, were not of the people of power nor of visible actions, due to the appearance of Islam and the word of Allah, exalted and majestic is He. And closing their hands refers to withholding from charity and doing good deeds. And His saying, exalted is He: "They have forgotten Allah, so He has forgotten them," means: they abandoned Him when they abandoned His Prophet and His legislation, so He abandoned them when He did not guide them nor protect them from the punishment of the Fire. And the term 'forgetting' is expressed as 'abandoning' in exaggeration, as the most intense forms of abandonment is that which is associated with forgetting. And in this way comes: "And do not forget the favor among yourselves" [Al-Baqarah: 237], "And do not forget your share of the world" [Al-Qasas: 77]. Then He judged them, exalted and majestic is He, with disobedience, which is the disobedience of disbelief necessitating eternal residence in the Fire. And Qatadah used to say: "So He has forgotten them," meaning: from good, but He has not forgotten them from evil.

And His saying, exalted is He: "Allah has promised the hypocrites," the verse, when the promise is specified with the declaration of evil, it is valid and appropriate even if it is a verse of pure warning. And the disbelievers in this verse are the open ones. And His saying: "It is sufficient for them," means: it is enough for them and sufficient for their crime and disbelief as a punishment and recompense. If anyone were to wish for them a punishment, that would be sufficient for them. "And Allah has cursed them," means: He has distanced them from His mercy, and "a lasting punishment" means: eternal without end.

And His saying, exalted is He: "Like those before you," the verse, Allah commanded His Prophet to address the hypocrites by saying to them: "Like those before you," and the meaning is: you are like those, or your example is like the example of those before you. And Al-Zajjaj said: the meaning is: a promise as He promised those before you, so it is related to "promised."

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And in this is a warning, then he said: they were stronger than you and greater, so they disobeyed and were destroyed. So you are more deserving of destruction due to your disobedience and weakness.

And al-khalaq: the share of fate and religion and all of a person's condition. And the khalaq of a person: the thing by which he is created. The meaning is: they hastened their share in their worldly life and left the door of the Hereafter, so you followed them.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And al-Tabari mentioned in the interpretation of this verse the saying of him, blessings and peace be upon him: "You will certainly follow the ways of those before you, inch by inch and yard by yard, so much so that if they entered a lizard's hole, you would enter it too." And what is similar to this hadith indicates the obligation for the Ummah of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, to follow all nations. This meaning does not fit the verse very well, as it addresses hypocrites who are disbelievers and whose deeds are nullified. The hadith addresses the monotheists who follow the ways of those who passed in worldly actions that do not take them out of the religion.

And His saying, exalted is He: "And you plunged as they plunged" means: you mixed as they mixed. It is borrowed from plunging into liquids and is only used in falsehood, because the handling of realities is based on order and system, while matters of falsehood are merely plunging. From this is the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: "Perhaps one who plunges into the wealth of Allah will have the Fire on the Day of Resurrection."

Then He, exalted is He, said: "Those are the ones whose deeds have been nullified in this world and the Hereafter." It is possible that by "those" He means the people who are described with severity and abundance of wealth and enjoyment of al-khalaq. The meaning is: and you too are like that, you are afflicted by your turning away from the truth. It is also possible that by "those" He means the hypocrites contemporary to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and the address is to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him. In this, there is a transition from one address to another different from the first. And the deed is nullified, and what is similar to it is nullified if it becomes void after effort. And the belly is nullified, with the opening of the 'ba', which is a disease in the belly. From this is the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: "Indeed, among what spring produces is that which kills or afflicts with hibat." And His saying: in "this world" means: -if it is about the hypocrites- what befalls them in this world from the disdain of the believers and the corruption of their deeds, and in the Hereafter that it will not benefit them nor will there be any reward for it. And what strengthens that the reference of "those" is to the hypocrites is His saying, exalted is He, in the upcoming verse: "Did not the news come to them" [At-Tawbah: 70], so reflect on it.