of the Prophet, ﷺ, the soundness of his Law, and the truth of this Qur’an—“that it is known to the scholars of the Children of Israel.” They know that he is the very one of whom Jesus, peace be upon him, gave glad tidings. Likewise, the Almighty says, “And a sign for them is that We carried their offspring in the laden ship” (Ya-Sin 36:41); here again, an āyah means a sign. Thus, the sign of the hypocrite is three.
A hypocrite is someone who conceals evil while displaying good, and part of that is to hide unbelief while outwardly professing Islam. Linguistically, the term is derived from nafiqāʾ al-yarbūʿ. The yarbūʿ—what we call the jerboa—digs itself a burrow in the earth with an entrance, then excavates a concealed hole at the far end as an emergency exit. If someone blocks the main entrance, it strikes open the hidden lower hole with its head and escapes. In the same way the hypocrite presents good to the people while harboring evil, displays faith while hiding disbelief.
Hypocrisy first manifested itself in the Prophet’s lifetime after the Battle of Badr. When the chiefs of Quraysh were slain there and the Muslims gained the upper hand, hypocrisy emerged: certain men claimed to be Muslims while they were in fact disbelievers. Allah says, “When they meet those who believe they say, ‘We believe’; but when they are alone with their devils they say, ‘We are really with you; we were only mocking’” (al-Baqarah 2:14). He also says, “Allah mocks them and prolongs them in their transgression, wandering blindly” (al-Baqarah 2:15). And He says of them as well, “When the hypocrites come to you, they say, ‘We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah.’” They emphasize their statement with the words of testimony, with inna and the emphatic lām, yet Allah declares, “Allah knows that you are indeed His Messenger, and Allah bears witness that the hypocrites are surely liars” (al-Munāfiqūn 63:1).
Thus He rendered a testimony even stronger than theirs, affirming that they are lying in their claim, “We bear witness that you are the Messenger of Allah,” regarding Muhammad’s being the Messenger of Allah; hence He followed it with: “And Allah knows that you are…"