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ka-lladhīna min qablikum kānū ʾashadda minkum quwwatan wa-ʾakthara ʾamwālan wa-ʾawlādan fa-stamtaʿū bi-khalāqihim fa-stamtaʿtum bi-khalāqikum ka-mā stamtaʿa lladhīna min qablikum bi-khalāqihim wa-khuḍtum ka-lladhī khāḍū ʾulāʾika ḥabiṭat ʾaʿmāluhum fī d-dunyā wa-l-ʾākhirati wa-ʾulāʾika humu l-khāsirūna
[Hypocrites! Your case is] similar to those who were before you, who were more powerful than you and more abounding in wealth and children: they enjoyed their share [of worldly existence]; you too enjoy your share, just like those who were before you enjoyed their share, and you have gossiped [impiously] as they gossiped. They are the ones whose works have failed in this world and the Hereafter; and it is they who are the losers.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah At-Tawbah – Verse 69
69 . “(O’ hypocrites! You are) like those who were before you, they were stronger than you I power and more abundant in wealth and children; so they enjoyed their portion; thus do you enjoy your portion as those before you did enjoy their portion; and you indulge in vain discourses as they indulged. These are those whose works are null in this world and the Hereafter, and those are the losers.”
An Admonition and a Warning
In order to awaken this group of the hypocrites, the abovementioned holy verse puts the mirror of the history before them and, comparing them with the former stubborn hypocrites, it teaches them the most instructive lessons. It implies that they are like the former hypocrites and they follow the same path, the same program, and the same evil fate of theirs. The verse says:
Those very hypocrites of old were stronger and more abundant both from the point of strength and from the point of properties and children than these ones. The verse says:
They enjoyed their share of the bounties of this world in the way of lusts, pollutions, sins, mischief, and corruption. These hypocrites of this community also enjoyed their own share in the same way that the former hypocrites had enjoyed.
Then, the Qur’ān adds in the verse:
For an admonition and a warning to the group of hypocrites contemporary with the Prophet (S) and all the hypocrites of the world, the Qur’ān, through two phrases, remarks the end of the former hypocrites. The first phrase is recited:
And the second phrase says:
Such hypocrites may enjoy some temporary and limited benefits from their hypocritical deeds in this life, but if the circumstance be observed carefully, it can be made manifest that, they enjoy of real benefits neither in this world nor in the next world.