their meaning and embraced them is among the hypocrites against whom Allah commanded us to strive, saying, exalted be He:

“Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be harsh with them.”

When hypocrisy becomes severe, the person marked by it is worse than the disbelievers among the People of the Book and is in the lowest depth of the Fire. These statements admit no defensible interpretation. Even supposing that some of them could linguistically bear a sound meaning, they may be understood in that sense only when their speaker’s intent is unknown. Yet these people’s intent is known, just as the religion of the Jews, Christians, and Rāfidah (Rejectors) is known. They have written books and composed poems on the subject, and their statements explain one another. Their intent is unmistakably known; none disputes it except an ignorant person whose objections deserve no attention.

It is obligatory to explain these statements’ meaning and expose their underlying intent to anyone who thinks well of them, and to anyone whom it is feared may think well of them or go astray. Their harm to Muslims is greater than the harm of poisons they consume without knowing they are poisons, and greater than the harm of thieves and traitors whom they do not recognize as such.

The utmost harm these thieves and traitors can cause is a person’s death or the loss of his wealth. This is a calamity in his worldly life that may become a cause of mercy for him in the Hereafter. These people, however, give others the drink of disbelief and heresy in the vessels of Allah’s prophets and allies. They wear the garb of those who strive in Allah’s cause, while inwardly they are among those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger. They present the words of disbelievers and hypocrites in the verbal forms used by Allah’s true allies. A man joins them intending to become a believer and an ally of Allah, only to become a hypocrite and an enemy of Allah.