“Those who wait to see what happens to you: if Allah grants you victory, they say, ‘Were we not with you?’ But if the disbelievers gain some advantage, they say, ‘Did we not gain mastery over you and protect you from the believers?’ Allah will judge between you on the Day of Resurrection, and Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers.”

Allah then described the reality of the hypocrites’ loyalty to the disbelievers and hostility toward the believers, saying: “Those who wait to see what happens to you.” That is, they await the outcome you will meet, whether good or bad, having prepared an answer for every eventuality in keeping with their hypocrisy. “If Allah grants you victory, they say, ‘Were we not with you?’” They claim to have been with the believers both outwardly and inwardly, so as to escape criticism and censure, share with them in the spoils of war and gains acquired without battle, and seek their support.

“But if the disbelievers gain some advantage”—He did not say “victory,” because they never attain a victory that marks the beginning of continuing triumph. At most, they receive a fleeting advantage, by Allah’s wisdom. When that occurs, “they say, ‘Did we not gain mastery over you’”—that is, take control of you—“and protect you from the believers?” In other words, they curry favor with the disbelievers by claiming that they withheld their hands from them despite having the ability to act, and protected them from the believers in every possible way: by discrediting the believers, discouraging them from fighting, supporting their enemies against them, and by other well-known means.

“Allah will judge between you on the Day of Resurrection.” He will reward the believers—both outwardly and inwardly—with Paradise, and He will punish the hypocrite men and women and the polytheist men and women.