His words concerning the hypocrites, “In their hearts is a disease, so Allah has increased their disease,” explain His wisdom in decreeing sins for sinners: because of their previous sins, He subjects them to subsequent sins that entail their respective punishments. Allah Most High says: “And We will turn their hearts and their eyes away, just as they refused to believe in it the first time.” He also says: “When they deviated, Allah caused their hearts to deviate,” and: “As for those in whose hearts is a disease, it adds defilement to their defilement.” Thus, the punishment for a sin is another sin after it, just as part of the reward for a good deed is another good deed after it. Allah Most High says: “And Allah increases in guidance those who accept guidance.”
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(11–12) “And when it is said to them, ‘Do not spread corruption on earth,’ they say, ‘We are only reformers.’ * Surely, it is they who are the corrupters, but they do not perceive it.”
That is, when these hypocrites are forbidden from spreading corruption on earth—which consists of committing disbelief and sins, including disclosing the believers’ secrets to their enemies and taking the disbelievers as allies—they say: “We are only reformers.” Thus, they combine spreading corruption on earth with claiming that it is not corruption but reform. They turn realities upside down, combining the practice of falsehood with the belief that it is truth. This is a graver offense than that of one who commits a sin while believing it to be a sin (1); such a person is closer to safety and more likely to turn back.
Because their statement, “We are only reformers,” confines reform exclusively to themselves—and implicitly denies that the believers are reformers—Allah turned their claim against them by saying: “Surely, it is they who are the corrupters.” For no one spreads greater corruption (2) than a person who disbelieves in Allah’s signs, bars others from Allah’s path, seeks to deceive Allah and His devoted servants, allies himself with those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and then claims that all this is reform. Can there be any greater corruption than this?
But they possess no knowledge that benefits them, even though they know enough about this for Allah’s proof to be established against them. Committing sins on earth constitutes corruption because it entails the corruption (3) of what is on the face of the earth—its grains, fruits, trees, and vegetation—through (4) the blights that afflict them because of (5) sins. Reform on earth, by contrast, consists of making it flourish through obedience to Allah and faith in Him. For this purpose Allah created mankind, settled them on earth, and lavished provisions upon them (6), so that they might use those provisions as an aid in obeying [and worshiping] Him. When people do the opposite on earth, they strive to spread corruption therein, laying it waste and preventing it from fulfilling the purpose for which it was created.