Overview (Verse 140)

Ridiculing God’s Words
 
The first degree of hypocrisy is when a believer sits with other people and keeps quiet when he hears God’s revelations being denied and ridiculed. He may call that tolerance, or cunning, or broad-mindedness, or acceptance of freedom of thought, or whatever! In fact it is nothing but defeatism working within him. At first he may delude himself, ashamed to acknowledge his humiliating weakness.
 
Standing up to defend God’s faith and revelation is the mark of true faith. When the willingness to do that weakens, everything else collapses and gets swept away. That anger for God’s sake is deliberately suppressed at first, but then it weakens and dies away. A person who hears his faith being ridiculed by others has the choice to either stand up in defence of his faith or leave that place altogether. To sit down, turn a blind eye and keep quiet is the first stage of defeat. This is, indeed, the bridge of hypocrisy which carries a person from faith to disbelief.
 
Some Muslims in Madinah attended the gatherings of influential hypocrites. The Qur’ān alerts those believers to the fact that attending such gatherings and keeping quiet therein is the first sign of defeatism. The Qur’ān wanted to spare the Muslims that stage, but the prevailing circumstances did not allow that they should be ordered to boycott all these gatherings immediately. Hence, they were ordered to boycott them when they heard God’s revelations being denied and ridiculed. Otherwise, to sit there would be hypocrisy with its horrible outcome: “Already has He enjoined upon you in this Book that whenever you hear people deny the truth of God’s revelations and mock at them, you shall avoid their company until they talk on some other theme; or else, you will indeed become like them. Indeed, God will gather both the hypocrites and the unbelievers together in hell.” (Verse 140)
 
This verse refers to an earlier revelation in the Qur’ān itself. The reference is to a verse in Sūrah 6, entitled Cattle, which may be rendered in translation as follows: “Whenever you meet people who indulge in [blasphemous] talk about Our revelations, turn your back upon them until they begin to talk of other things.” (6: 68)
 
The threat here is enough to make a believer tremble with dread: “or else, you will indeed become like them”. (Verse 140) The prospect held out as the result of such friendship with those who ridicule God’s revelations is so fearful that it does not allow for any further hesitation: “Indeed, God will gather both the hypocrites and the unbelievers together in hell.” (Verse 140)
 
The prohibition is limited to attending gatherings where God’s revelations are denied and ridiculed. It does not go further than that so as to impose a total ban on all relations with the hypocrites. This is indicative of the nature of the period when it was revealed and the stage at which the Muslim community was at the time. This could be repeated in later generations and in other environments. It also indicates that it is part of the nature of the Islamic system to move gradually, taking account of the remaining ties, existing feelings and prevailing circumstances, while moving steadily to its ultimate objective of a complete change of situation.