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ʾa-lam yaʿlamū ʾanna llāha yaʿlamu sirrahum wa-najwāhum wa-ʾanna llāha ʿallāmu l-ghuyūbi
Do they not know that Allah knows their secret [thoughts] and [hears] their secret talks, and that Allah is knower of all that is Unseen?
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah At-Tawbah – Verses 75-78
75 . “And of them are those who have made a covenant with Allah: ‘If He gives us out of His grace, we will certainly give alms (zakāt) and we will certainly be of the righteous’.”
76 . “But when He gave them out of His Grace, they were niggardly of it and they turned away, swerving aside.”
77 . “So as a consequence He put hypocrisy into their hearts until the day they will meet Him, because they failed to fulfil unto Allah what they had promised Him and because of what they used to lie.”
78 . “Do they not know that Allah knows their hidden (thought) and their secret whisperings, and that Allah is the knower of all unseen (things).
The first verse of the abovementioned group of verses is about some of the hypocrites who made a covenant with Allah and then they broke it. It has also been said that the verse has been revealed concerning ‘Tha‘labat-ibn Hātab’ who was a poor man. He asked the Prophet (S) that he would pray for him in this regard. He said if the Prophet (S) prayed and he became rich, he would remit considerably in the way of Allah, and he would become one of the benevolent persons.
The Prophet (S) prayed for him and he became rich enough, but he stinted. He also did not participated in ‘Friday Prayer’, and thereupon he made his hypocrisy manifest. Whatever the sign of the revelation of the verse might be, however, it is about some persons who have always existed and are existed in the societies. When such people have not wealth and facilities, they may make covenant with Allah that if Allah bestowed upon them properties and they became rich they would pay in charity in His way and would become righteous and of the good servants of Allah.
But they often do not do like that when He causes them to be wealthy. They scant and usually avoid doing good things. The verse says:
An important matter, regarding this subject mentioned in the second verse, is that this breach of covenant and becoming stingy causes hypocrisy to come into existence in their hearts. When a person behaves like that, he has to clasp to justification of himself and has to say something through his tongue which he does not believe in his inward. It is similar to the manner of the hypocrites who, in order to protect themselves, expressed Islam falsely and said something that they did not believe. The verse says:
The one who makes covenant, but he breaches it, or promises something but he fails, he has somehow the same status of hypocrisy and duplicity. Therefore, in this verse, the Qur’ān remarks that the appearance of the state of hypocrisy in such persons originates from where they have breached their promise and have told a lie. The verse says:
Thus, according to this verse, breach of promise and falsehood are two signs for hypocrisy. This meaning is also referred to in a tradition narrated from the Holy Prophet (S) who said:
“There are three signs for a hypocrite: when he speaks he tells a lie; when he promises he fails; and when he is trusted he proves treacherous.”
In the next verse, the Qur’ān states about these hypocrites as follows:
That is, Allah is aware of all their secrets whether those ones that they tell each other as mysteries, and those secrets which they whisper.