(13) “And when it is said to them, ‘Believe as the people have believed,’ they say, ‘Should we believe as the fools have believed?’ Surely, it is they who are the fools, but they do not know.”

That is, when the hypocrites are told, “Believe as the people have believed”—meaning, with the faith of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, which consists of belief in the heart and profession by the tongue—they say, in their false claim, “Should we believe as the fools have believed?” By “the fools”—may Allah disgrace them—they mean the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, claiming (1) that it was their foolishness that drove them to believe, forsake their homelands, and oppose the disbelievers, whereas reason, in their view, demanded the opposite. Thus, they accused them of foolishness, while this implicitly meant (2) that they themselves were the rational ones, endowed with understanding and sound judgment.

Allah refuted them and declared that they themselves are the true fools, for the essence of foolishness (3) is that a person remains ignorant of his own best interests and pursues what harms him. This description applies to them and holds true of them. Conversely, reason and discernment consist in knowing one’s own best interests, pursuing what benefits oneself, and [seeking to] ward off what causes harm. This description applies to [the Companions and] the believers and holds true of them. What matters, then, are actual qualities and proof—not bare claims and empty words. Allah Most High then says: