Traits of Hypocrisy - Shaykh Aqeel Mahmood

Traits of Hypocrisy

Praise be to Allah. We praise Him, ask for His help and ask for His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our actions. Whom Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whom He misguides, none can guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O you who have believed, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul, and created from it its mate, and gave birth to many men and women from it. And fear Allah, with whom you ask for forgiveness and mercy. Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and say the right words. He will amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great triumph. Indeed, the truth of the speech is the Book of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace be upon him. And the worst of things are newly introduced matters, and every newly introduced matter is an innovation, and every innovation is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

The Gravity of Hypocrisy (النفاق)

The greatest sin and one of the worst and most hated things in the eyes of Allah is the issue of nifaq, the sin of nifaq, hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is when a person outwardly claims to be a Muslim, but inwardly he is in fact a disbeliever. He doesn't believe in Allah or the Messenger of Allah.

And Allah spoke about the munafiqeen in the Quran. Allah says:

Allah talks about the worst possible punishment given to the munafiqeen. He says: Verily, the munafiqeen will be in the lowest pits of hellfire, and they won't be given any type of helper.

And so we see, brothers and sisters, this issue of nifaq being the worst sin that a person can be involved in. One has to be aware of it. One has to be aware of what it is, and whether or not a person is staying away from it.

The Fear of the Believers Towards Hypocrisy

In fact, Imam al-Hasan al-Basri, rahimahullah, he said:

Nobody is afraid of it except that he is a believer, and the one who feels safe from it is the munafiq. It's only the munafiq, the hypocrite, who feels safe from nifaq, from hypocrisy. And it's the believer who fears it.

And so, when we feel a sense of safety, and we don't think that this issue of nifaq applies to us, or applies to our actions, or our statements, or applies in our lives — then that's something which isn't from the characteristics of a believer. The believer is someone who regularly checks himself, reviews his actions and statements, purifies his sincerity over and over again. And it's something which is from the acts of the believer.

The companions, رضي الله عنهم أجمعين, were always wary, and they were always concerned, and they were always afraid that they would be from the munafiqeen. One of the companions, Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, رضي الله عنه, was known as صَاحِبُ السِّرِّ — the companion of the secret. He was the one who was given the names of the munafiqeen during the time of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.

And Umar, رضي الله عنه, once asked him — he approached him, and he said: I ask you by Allah, am I one of the names that was mentioned to you by the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم as being from the munafiqeen? And so Umar, رضي الله عنه, himself was so concerned about being from this list of the munafiqeen that he would constantly check himself, and he would ask Hudhayfah, رضي الله عنه, whether he was from them. And of course Hudhayfah, رضي الله عنه, responded no, and said: I'm not going to answer any of these kinds of questions from any of the companions after you.

Abu al-Darda', رضي الله عنه, he would say:

If I was just sure — that Allah accepted just one salah — that would be more beloved to me than the dunya and whatever's in it. Just the certainty, the yaqeen, that Allah had accepted just one of my salawat. And this is because the companions were afraid of nifaq, of hypocrisy — whether they were praying sincerely for Allah, or whether they were doing things for the sake of showing off towards others.

One of the salaf said:

I met and interacted with thirty of the companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Every single one of them was afraid of nifaq upon themselves. Every single one of them was afraid of hypocrisy — that they may be involved in nifaq, that they may be from the munafiqeen.

And so the lesson we can take from this, brothers and sisters, is that if the companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم — who were considered the best of the generations, the ones whom Allah was pleased with, رضي الله عنهم, Allah was pleased with them and they were pleased with Allah — if they were concerned about nifaq upon themselves, then us living today have to have even more concern with regards to whether or not we are from the munafiqeen. Whether or not we have traits of nifaq. Whether or not we have these traits of hypocrisy.

And so one has to ask himself: Do I have those traits? Do I have some of those traits that a hypocrite has? What are those traits? What does a munafiq do? How does a munafiq think? How does a munafiq behave? And we have to regularly check ourselves — check our intentions, think about our actions and statements, the way we behave, the way we think. Are we carrying traits of nifaq? May Allah protect us from them.

The Traits of the Hypocrites (المنافقين)

First Trait: Disbelief and Mocking the Believers

From the traits of the munafiqeen, first and foremost, is that he is a disbeliever. He doesn't believe in Allah. He doesn't believe in the message of Allah. He doesn't believe in the prophethood of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. And he considers the believers to be lowly.

The Muslim is the one who, when he sees those doing righteous deeds and worshipping Allah, wants to be from them, and loves them because they are worshipping Allah. The munafiq is the one who sees that and mocks them, makes fun of them — just for worshipping Allah, just for applying and adapting the sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in his life.

Allah says in the Quran:

The munafiqeen, when they interact with the believers, say: we believe. But when they go and disperse to their shayateen — their associates, the disbelievers — they deny the message of Allah. They say: we are with you; we were only joking, only playing around. They don't really believe.

With regards to this idea of mocking the Muslims, Allah says about them:

When it is told to the munafiqeen: believe just like the people have believed — how do they reply? This is in the beginning of Surah al-Baqarah. They say: shall we believe like the foolish have believed? And so they look down upon the believers. They look down upon the Muslims.

Second Trait: Rejoicing at the Believer's Misfortune

From the traits of a munafiq, brothers and sisters, is that a munafiq is happy when a believer goes through misfortune or trials and tribulations. When the believer is afflicted with hardship, the munafiq is happy. And when the believer goes through something good, when something good happens to him, the munafiq is disappointed. Allah says:

When something good happens, it hurts them — it's not something they are happy with. They don't feel happiness the way you feel happiness when something good happens. And when a calamity afflicts the believer, when he goes through some kind of trial or tribulation, they say: we already prepared in advance. What happened to you didn't happen to us because we took precautions beforehand. They rub it in. They make things worse. They make the person feel even worse — "we told you so, we made precautions, nothing happened to us, it happened to you because you didn't prepare properly." And they turn away, and they are happy, they are rejoicing.

Third Trait: Selfishness and Concern Only for Themselves

From the traits of the munafiq, brothers and sisters, is that they are only concerned about what interests them. As we mentioned previously — when it is said to the munafiq to believe, he says he believes in front of the Muslims, but then he goes to his shayateen, his associates, the disbelievers, and he says: we are with you, we were only joking, we were only playing around. We are not really with them. Because they are concerned about themselves — worried about their reputation, worried about what others may think. Their concern isn't for the Muslims, isn't for the community. They're thinking about what's best for them, not about the betterment of the Muslims.

Fourth Trait: The Four Defining Signs of the Hypocrite

The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم told us in a hadith about the characteristics of the munafiqeen — how do the hypocrites behave, what do they do? He said صلى الله عليه وسلم:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 34; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 106)

Four things — if they are found in a person, he is a pure hypocrite. And if somebody has one of these traits, he has a trait of a munafiq, until he abandons it. What are these traits?

Number one: When he is entrusted with something, when a trust is made, he betrays that trust — he breaks the treaty, he doesn't stick to what was agreed upon.

Number two: When he speaks, he lies. He is in such a habit of speaking lies that every time he speaks, he is lying.

Number three: When he makes a promise, he breaks that promise. He is not somebody who sticks to his promises — and we know that the believer is supposed to stick to his promises.

Number four: When he starts arguing with somebody else, he resorts to insults. He can't have a conversation with somebody else without resorting, if he gets heated, to insulting the other person.

So brothers and sisters, these traits of the munafiq are traits that we have to be wary of. They are traits that we have to reflect on in our own lives, in our own actions — the way we behave, the way we speak, the way we think — whether or not we have these traits. May Allah protect us from them, and if we do, we ask Allah to remove them from our hearts. We ask Allah that He removes all these traits of the munafiq from the hearts of us and our loved ones.