Major hypocrisy never issues from a believer, whereas minor hypocrisy may appear in a believer.

As a rule, the one guilty of major hypocrisy does not repent; and even if he does, the jurists differ as to whether the judge should accept his repentance. By contrast, the perpetrator of minor hypocrisy may repent to Allah, and Allah will accept his repentance. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said: (1) “It is quite common for a believer to be afflicted with one of the branches of hypocrisy and then for Allah to grant him repentance. Something that would entail hypocrisy may enter his heart, but Allah wards it off. The believer is tried with the whisperings of Satan and with suggestions of disbelief that constrict his chest. As the Companions said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, one of us experiences thoughts that he would rather plummet from the sky to the earth than utter aloud.’ He replied, ‘That is unadulterated faith.’ (2) In another wording: ‘We find thoughts too awful to voice.’ He said, ‘Praise be to Allah who reduced Satan’s plot to mere whispering.’ Thus, the very presence of these misgivings, together with the believer’s intense loathing of them and his driving them from his heart, constitutes clear faith.” End quote.