What Destroys The Hypocrites - Portal Gems #47

Est. Read time: 4 min
Edition Number: 47
Adapted from: Journey Through the Quran: A Cover to Cover Commentary
Instructor: Shaykh Daood Butt

Assalamu Alaykum,

Today’s gem is from Shaykh Daood Butt’s cover to cover tafsir course on Thursdays at 5pm EST on Miftaah Portal. In this gem, Shaykh Daood explains what a hypocrite is and what ultimately leads to their downfall while diving into the tafsir of ayahs 8-16 of Surah Baqarah. The lesson this gem was taken from (tafsir of page 3 and 4 of the Quran) is available on YouTube for free!

Hope you enjoy!

We begin in the Name of Allah ﷻ, the Most Merciful and Compassionate,
We ask that He ﷻ sends Peace and Blessings upon our noble and beloved
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

In verse number 8 to 16 (Surah Baqarah), Allah ﷻ transitions from talking about disbelievers and their qualities to now talking about the qualities of hypocrites.

What exactly is the definition of a hypocrite? A hypocrite is someone who, on the outside, portrays one thing, but deep down inside, they believe something else. They don't agree internally with what they portray externally.

They claim to believe, but they actually don't. And they have this increasing sickness within them. Allah ﷻ says,

Allah ﷻ says that they have this sickness within their hearts. Allah ﷻ increases that sickness within their hearts because they have brought that sickness upon themselves.

Another quality of these hypocrites that Allah ﷻ points out here is that this sickness within their hearts is what kills them. As in, He continues to increase this sickness. He increases the fact that they need to show that they believe when they really don't.

I want us to step back and think of a child who tells a lie and says to their mom or dad, "You know what? It's just a white lie. I didn't think that it was going to turn into this big problem. I just thought that, you know, if I said this one thing, then I wouldn't get in trouble, and you know, that wouldn't happen. But then after I told you, then you thought of this thing and then you thought of something else, and then it turned into that, and then I had to lie about something else, and then you asked my brother or you asked my sister, and my sister then said something else, and I had to lie to make up another story.”

You see how lying just goes and goes and goes, and really what hypocrites are doing on the outside is lying. They're showing people this is who I am, but they're lying. And so they have to continue this facade, this act that they're putting on, to keep the whole house from falling apart. So Allah ﷻ makes this sickness what actually destroys them.

May Allah ﷻ protect us from hypocrisy.

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم، فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرحيم

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