(60–63) “Have you not seen those who claim to believe in what was revealed to you and what was revealed before you? They wish to seek judgment from false authority, although they were commanded to reject it. Satan wishes to lead them far astray. * When it is said to them, ‘Come to what Allah has revealed and to the Messenger,’ you see the hypocrites turn away from you completely. * How will it be when a calamity befalls them because of what their own hands have sent ahead, and then they come to you swearing by Allah, ‘We intended nothing but good and reconciliation’? * Those are the ones whose hearts Allah knows. So turn away from them, admonish them, and speak to them concerning themselves with penetrating words.”
Allah expresses amazement to His servants at the condition of the hypocrites—“those who claim that they” believe in what the Messenger brought and in what came before him, yet despite this, “they wish to seek judgment from false authority.” Anyone who judges by other than Allah’s law is a false authority.
Although “they were commanded to reject it,” how can this coexist with faith? Faith requires submission to Allah’s law and recourse to it for judgment in every matter. Whoever claims to be a believer yet prefers the judgment of false authority to Allah’s judgment is lying in that claim. This is part of Satan’s leading them astray. Hence He says: “Satan wishes to lead them far astray” from the truth.
How, then, will these misguided people fare “when a calamity befalls them because of what their own hands have sent ahead”—namely, sins, including seeking the judgment of false authority?!
“And then they come to you,” offering excuses (1) for what they have done and saying, “We intended nothing but good and reconciliation.” That is, they claim: We intended only to do good to the disputing parties and reconcile them. Yet they are liars in this, for all true good lies in seeking the judgment of Allah and His Messenger: “Who is better than Allah in judgment for people who have certainty?”
Hence He says: “Those are the ones whose hearts Allah knows”—that is, He knows the hypocrisy and evil intent within them. “So turn away from them”; that is, pay them no heed and do not take them to task for what they have done and committed. “And admonish them”; that is, explain Allah’s ruling to them, encouraging them to submit to Allah and warning them against abandoning such submission. “And speak to them concerning themselves with penetrating words”; that is, advise them privately, between you and them, for this is more effective in achieving the intended purpose. Be emphatic in restraining and deterring them from what they have been doing. This indicates that a person who commits sins, even if one turns away from him, should still be advised privately and admonished emphatically in whatever manner is thought most likely to achieve the intended purpose.