Al-Hashr (The Exile)

14. [Hypocrites are so fearful that] they fight not against you even together, except in fortified townships or from behind walls. Their enmity among themselves is more intense. You would think they were united, but their hearts are divided. That is because they are a people who reflect not.

The Arabic word qura is applied to a place of gathering and settlement be it a town or a village. The word muhassana denoting fortified is cognate with hisn (“castle”). The noun phrase qura muhassana is applied to places fortified by walls, moats, and towers. Judur is a plural noun denoting “walls” and the singular form is jidar. The word shatta is the plural form of shatit (“scattered”).

Resuming the discussion in the preceding Verses, the blessed Verse is saying that hypocrites are so afraid of the believers that whenever the latter confront them, they hide behind walls and wage war against them from behind castle walls. Muslims may imagine that hypocrites are united and unanimous but the fact is that outwardly they are together but it is out of ignorance that their hearts are quite scattered and they intensely bear animosity against one another.

Reflecting upon these blessed Verses clearly indicates that the attributes ascribed to hypocrites herein are to be found in many a Muslim nowadays such that if they get together to decide on certain significant issues, they are not unanimous since they attend to their personal benefits and interests even if they lead to other people's loss.

Thus, the Muslim community is supposed to prevail over all nations in the world as addressing the believers, the Qur’anic Verse¹ :

“Therefore, do not become weak [against your enemy], nor be sad, and you will be the most triumphant people in the world, if they be firmly established in terms of faith.”

Our backwardness reflects that we Muslims do not act upon the conditions on which faithfulness rests, otherwise, as reflected in the blessed Verse quoted above, we should have been the most triumphant and the mightiest of nations in the world.