In the Name of Allah the most Merciful the most Compassionate
All praise is to Allah the Lord of the worlds, and the best blessings and greetings sent to all the prophets and messengers, in particular their sealing Muhammad and on his family , companions and wives.
What is truly Nifaq and Who is really the person we call Munaafiq ?
In response to those questions, I have spent long time thinking during the last five years and the fruit of this effort was an article I wrote on my blog on www.Naseeha.info
It came out as a huge article (three parts and increasing) and I had to write it in Arabic to address the lingual, religious and Islamic issues of the problem. This is a brief introduction to the English version which is being translated.
مَثَلُهُمْ كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي اسْتَوْقَدَ نَارًا فَلَمَّا أَضَاءَتْ مَا حَوْلَهُ ذَهَبَ اللَّهُ بِنُورِهِمْ وَتَرَكَهُمْ فِي ظُلُمَاتٍ لَّا يُبْصِرُونَ
صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ
أَوْ كَصَيِّبٍ مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ فِيهِ ظُلُمَاتٌ وَرَعْدٌ وَبَرْقٌ يَجْعَلُونَ أَصَابِعَهُمْ فِي آذَانِهِم مِّنَ الصَّوَاعِقِ حَذَرَ الْمَوْتِ ۚ وَاللَّهُ مُحِيطٌ بِالْكَافِرِينَ
كَادُ الْبَرْقُ يَخْطَفُ أَبْصَارَهُمْ ۖ كُلَّمَا أَضَاءَ لَهُم مَّشَوْا فِيهِ وَإِذَا أَظْلَمَ عَلَيْهِمْ قَامُوا ۚ وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَذَهَبَ بِسَمْعِهِمْ وَأَبْصَارِهِمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
Their example is the example of someone who lit a fire so when it lit up what was around him Allah took away their light and left them in darkness where they could not see. Deaf, dumb and blind, they cannot go back. Or like a downpour from heaven, in which is darkness and thunder and lightning. They put their fingers in their ears from the lightning bolt, in fear of death. And Allah surrounds the disbelievers. The lightning almost snatches away their sight. Every time it gives them light, they walk within it, and when it goes dark again they stop still. And if Allah willed he would take their hearing and their sight. Indeed Allah has power over all things. (Surah 2:17-20)
The interpreters of these “Ayaat” all agree that the first ayaat are talking about “Munafeqeen” or Hypocrites, and it is a brilliant “Mathal in Quran” describing the psychological nature of the reactions and conflicts in the soul of a hypocrite. The last two are explaining the state of the disbeliever.
And the example is saying that those munafeqeen had asked for a light in the darkness so they did the usual thing of starting a fire, but when they saw what was around them ( when they saw the truth, the reality) , Allah took their “sight” away and left them in darkness and they could not see anything.
My rendering here ( and I might be wrong), is that the missed connection is that when they were in darkness they had an image of what things around them would be. For example they put themselves in the centre, and when they saw the truth by the light of or Islam , they internally rejected it ( that is their difference from the Kafireen, who did not see, or the light was too strong for them), and when they rejected it, they lost their sight, and in my understanding from the use of the word “Noor” here which can refer to light and to insight, I think the Quran is saying : they lost their Insight, they were not blinded by the eye, but they lost the ability to see.
So the Munafeqeen actually and in reality are blind people who are in great confusion because of that. And this gets clearer in the next Ayagt, when the Quran continues to describe them as people in a rainy stormy night full of thunder and lightning , because of their great blindness and confusion , they put their fingers in their ears so to protect against death each time they hear a thunderbolt. And from time to time , there appear a glimmering of insight light which is blindingly bright, yet, when they try to move in its light it quickly disappears, so they are back to their confusion and darkness and have to stop.
Nifaq (Hypocrisy) in Islam is not only an extreme case confined to certain groups who existed at the time of the prophet, it is a feature that may exist to some extent in many Muslim people, hence the famous hadith which can be understood now:
أَرْبَعٌ مَنْ كُنَّ فيه كَانَ مُنافِقَاً خالصاً ومَنْ كانتْ فيهِ خِصْلَةٌ مِنْهُنَّ كانت فيه خِصْلَةٌ من النفاقِ حتى يَدَعَهَا، إذا ائْتُمِنَ خَانَ ، وإذا حَدَّثَ كَذَبَ ، وإذا عَاهَدَ غَدَرَ، وإذا خَاصَمَ فَجَرَ.
Four characteristics: whoever has all of them is a hypocrite; whoever has one of them has one part of hypocrisy until it is abandoned: If he is trusted, he betrays the trust; and if he speaks he tells lies; and if he makes a pact, he breaks it; and if he argues with someone, then he is away from fairness.
