Overall meaning : In these verses, Allah Almighty informs us about a group of people who merely pay lip service to true faith: They declare with their mouths that they believe in Allah and the resurrection on the Day of Judgement when in fact they do not truly believe this in their hearts, thereby seeking to deceive Allah and the believers by feigning faith and concealing unbelief. Allah Almighty, however, explains that by so doing they are only deceiving themselves, for Allah will surely desert them and leave them in the lurch both in this life and the life to come, but they do not really realise that they are the ones who are deceived.
There is doubt and hypocrisy in the hearts of this category of people, and so Allah has increased their hypocrisy even more, and they will, in addition to that, suffer a painful punishment because of lying and concealing the truth about themselves and because of disbelieving and Allah and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him, peace.
If they are told, ‘Do not do evil in the land through disobedience, hypocrisy and unbelief and taking the unbelievers as your supporters,’ they reply, ‘Surely we are doing only what is good and right.’ They have indeed told a whopping great lie, for they have wandered far away from all that is good due to their unbelief and hypocrisy, but they still do not realise that what they are doing is actually evil.
And if they are told, ‘Believe in Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and what he has brought you from his Lord, just as his companions, may Allah be pleased with them, believe,’ they reply, ‘Are we to believe just as the fools and weak-minded believe and do as they do?’—thereby alluding to Muhammad’s companions, may Allah be pleased with them. Allah Almighty declares that it is they who are the fools and weak-minded, yet they do not realize it.
When these hypocrites meet the believers, they falsely tell them they are also believers, but when they go to their leaders of unbelief and hypocrisy and are alone with them they say to them, ‘We follow none but you; we only mock the believers by saying to them that we believe in Allah and the Last Day.’
Allah Almighty then states that He mocks them, in response to their mocking the believers, by treating them as the believers based on what they apparently claim to be, such as by guaranteeing protection of their lives and wealth, but in the hereafter they will surely receive the agonising punishment alone by being cast into the lowest depths of Hellfire. Such is Allah’s way of mocking them. Furthermore, He grants them respite by letting them continue in their rebellion and transgression and wander blindly in their unbelief, plunged in utter confusion, without ever finding a way out of it.
It is this type of people who have chosen error and left true guidance, hence incurring a great loss. By taking such a course of action, they are clearly not sensible.
By lapsing into unbelief after embracing the faith after the truth has become clear to them, such hypocrites are like someone who kindles a fire to illuminate his surroundings and benefit from it. However, when the fire lights up everything around him and he has perceived what is good and what is harmful to him, the fire goes out and the light vanishes, thereby losing what would benefit him, namely light, and being left only with what would be harmful to them, namely burning and smoke. Such is the case of the hypocrites who have perceived the light of faith and then turned away from it. They are deaf to true guidance, dumb as they do not express it and blind as they cannot see it with their hearts. Thus, they cannot return to true guidance after exchanging it with misguidance.
Allah strikes out another parable to depict the condition of another category of hypocrites: heavy rain is falling from the sky, accompanied by pitch darkness —darkness of the night, darkness of the clouds and darkness of the rain—as well as by thunder and lightning. When they hear a thunderclap, they cover their ears with their fingers in a desperate attempt to avoid the ear-splitting sound of the thunderbolt, for fear of being struck by it and die. But Allah encompasses them with His might and knowledge and so they can neither frustrate or escape His presence, nor can the precautions they take be of any benefit to them. The lightning almost blinds them because of its intense brightness and their extremely weak sight. Every time it flashes upon them, they take a few steps, but when it stops flashing and darkness closes on them they stand still. And if Allah willed, He could take away their hearing and their sight. Allah has power over all things, and nothing can ever frustrate His plans or be beyond His power.
The meaning of this parable is that when the hypocrites happen to hear the Qur’an being recited and hear its warnings and admonitions, among other things, they avoid listening to its verses lest they be overtaken by what they have been warned of or punished for their hypocrisy in this world or in the hereafter. However, their prudence will prove futile, as Allah Almighty encompasses them with His all-encompassing power and omniscience. The intensely bright light of the Qur’an, along with the conclusive proofs it contains, almost lets these hypocrites perceive the truth clearly, but they do not benefit from such light because of their deficient insight. Nevertheless, whenever the light of truth shines or glows in their hearts, they walk in it for a short distance, rather compelled by the truth it carries with it, but this light does not take long before it fades because their hearts are engulfed in the darkness of severe doubts, and so they stand still in bewilderment. Then Allah warns them of taking away their hearing and sight as punishment for their hypocrisy and unbelief, stating that He has immense power over all things.