Ibn al-Murraḥḥil said to him, “On what grounds do you say that the term may be applied to this and to that?”
Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn answered, “This (1) is well known among the scholars, and on that basis they explained the Prophet’s ﷺ words: ‘The sign of the hypocrite is three: when he speaks he lies, when he makes a promise (2) he breaks it, and when he is entrusted he betrays the trust.’ (3) Al-Tirmidhī and others have reported this and conveyed it from the scholars (4).
More than one of the early authorities said, ‘Disbelief short of disbelief, hypocrisy short of hypocrisy, and idolatry short of idolatry.’
If hypocrisy is a genus that contains two species, then the flagrantly disobedient sinner falls under one of those two.
Ibn al-Murraḥḥil objected, “How can you make hypocrisy a generic term when you have already made it (5) a homonymous word? If it were a generic term it would be univocal (6), and univocal names are not homonymous. How then can you make it both homonymous (7) and univocal?”
Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn replied, “I never said that it is homonymous; I only said that it is applied to both…"