Al-Hadid (The Iron)

14. [The hypocrites] will call the believers: "Were we not with you?" The believers will reply: "Yes! But you led yourselves into sedition and looked forward for our destruction; you doubted [the true religion] and were deceived by false desires, till the command of Allah came to pass [to cause your perdition]. And the chief deceiver deceived you in respect of Allah."

The Arabic verbal form fa-tantum denotes "you led yourselves into the sedition of discord. Tarabbus denotes awaiting and amani is the plural form of umniya denoting desire. gharur ("deceiving, deceiver") is one of the appellations of Satan.

The blessed Verse is saying that hypocrites will call believers asking whether they had not been living with them in the same society and they were with them there. What did happen that they were severed of a sudden and believers were admitted to Divine Mercy and Spirit and they were abandoned in torment?

Believers reply to them saying that they used to be together everywhere and at all times. They used to be neighbors or even shared the same roof, but they had been quite different in terms of beliefs and deeds. They had kept aloof from them as strangers alien to the principles of truth.

The blessed Verse further adds that they were entangled by gross mistakes, including:

1. They deceived themselves through treading the path of disbelief and caused their own perdition.

2. They always looked forward for the Noble Prophet's (S) demise and the perdition of Muslims and effacement of the basis of the Islamic faith. Besides, they procrastinated all righteous deeds and moves.

3. They always doubted Resurrection and the veracity of the Prophetic call and the Holy Qur’an.

4. They were always preoccupied with endless desires until the time when they died owing to Divine Command. Such vain desires impeded them from true reflection since they had plunged into dreams and imaginations thus living in a world of illusions. Thus, they were overwhelmed by gratification of concupiscent desires and attainment to mundane goals.

5. Furthermore, the deceiving Satan had solidified its basis in their hearts and thereby deceived you by temptations. At times, Satan made you believe that the world was everlasting and the resurrection was not to be actualized. At times, Satan questioned the existence of God Almighty. These five factors caused the severance between hypocrites and believers.