Overall meaning : Allah forbids His believing servants from taking for trusted confidants other than the believers, asserting that the unbelievers and hypocrites are not to be trusted. They spare no effort to harm the believers whenever an opportunity presents itself. They love to see them in distress and suffer all kinds of hardships. The hatred they feel towards the believers is so intense that they cannot conceal it, and so it has become evident only through their slips of the tongue, but what their hearts conceal is greater still. Allah has made the revelations plain to the believers, including the signs of these unbelievers and hypocrites whereby they might distinguish friend from foe, and such clarification will surely benefit them if they understand it.
Allah then mentions some of the things the unbelievers and the hypocrites do, which require the believers to hate them and to be wary of them. Because of their intense hatred for the believers, they do not reciprocate the spirit of good will the believers show them. The believers love them, but they hate the believers. While the believers believe in all the books Allah has revealed, they do not believe in what Allah has revealed to Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and have even perverted what was revealed to them. When they meet the believers they feign faith—professing it only with their tongues—but when they meet each other in private they bite their fingertips at the believers in their rage. In response to this, Allah instructs His Prophet, Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to say to them: ‘Die in your rage. Allah knows the secrets of the hearts and nothing is hidden from Him.’
If good fortune comes the believers’ way, this grieves these hypocrites and unbelievers; but if the believers are afflicted with some misfortune, they rejoice at it. Allah reassures the believers, saying that if they remain steadfast and mindful of Him, their wicked designs will not harm them at all. Allah has full knowledge of what they do, and He will surely repay them according to their actions.