SURAH AL-BAQARAH
Ayah 10.
فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ فَزَادَهُمُ اللّهُ مَرَضاً وَلَهُم عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْذِبُونَ
In their hearts is sickness, and Allah has increased their sickness. They will have a painful punishment because of the lies they continue to make.
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“In their hearts is sickness”
“Munafiq” is a disease in the heart. The first type of Munafiq having a full sickness of the heart while the second type of Munafiq having hidden sickness and he is being complacent about it. The disease may grow if a cure is not administered. A Muslim may have this desease creeping into his heart while he is unaware of it.
The Munafiq disease is a very serious sickness to eeman. It destroys guidance. The first Surah (al-Fatihah) described people asking for guidance, while in this ayah, Allah warn us of something that can destroy the guidance that we already have. Muslims must avoid at all cost the symptoms of hypocracy.
A person of Taqwa never feel safe from this disease. The Qur’an showed us what we should be looking for (i.e. guidance) and what we must avoid (i.e. hypocrasy).
If a country is hit by “bird flu” disease, people will start checking for any bird flu symptoms on their bodies because they are worried. If we are worried of this Munafiq disease infecting our hearts, we will look for any Munafiq symptoms in our behaviour.
“and Allah has increased their sickness.”
When they continuously act as a Munafiq, Allah lets them dig a deeper hole for them to create more trouble after death and facing judgement day. Just like the dog who ran hard on a lease. The longer the lease, the faster it had ran and the harder is the “yank” when it reached the end of the rope. Allah let them have more and more opportunity to disobey.
Therefore a Muslim who contracted this disease and is unaware of it is categorized as the second type of Munafiq. If he does not put any effort to identify the symptoms and stop the disease but in fact enjoys behaving that way, he will transit into becoming the first type of Munafiq. (Remember that the first type of Munafiq has no “eeman” at all)
There are many symptoms in a Muslim’s munafiq behaviour. The main symptom is not committed to establish the Solah. He only does Solah when there are people around him that do Solah. If he is alone and has free time, he only does Solah when it is very convenient for him to do it. If there is the slightest discomfort or obstacle which need extra effort in order to perform the Solah, he will just ignore the Solah. Example if he visits a patient at the hospital and 'Asr is nearly over. There is no prayer room nearby. For him this is just a trivial matter and he will forgo the 'Asr prayer without any guilt. He will do a "Qadhak" some other time if he remembers. There is no commitment.
Some symptoms that we can be aware of:
- Not commited in establishing the Solah
- Not committed to fulfilling promises or anything that have been agreed upon.
eg. you agreed to pay a tuition teacher each month but you keep forgetting to pay.
eg. you agreed to meet someone (online or outside) and each time you are missing.
- Uncontrollable anger with filthy words coming from the mouth.
- Unconrollable sadness or happiness.
- Not committed to guidance, eg. uninterested in religious knowledge, ignoring advises from the Quran or Hadith, etc.
A person who has a cold will display symptoms of feverish, coughing, running nose, etc. Therefore we must always be aware whether our behavior and actions are the same as a Munafiq. If you are ever confident that you declare yourself as a person of Taqwa and never checking yourself as a Munafiq, your complacency will lead to the sickness creeping into you.
We are not given the rights to say that a certain individual is a Munafiq. We are only taught of the symptoms (through Hadiths) and not the names of who are the Munafiquun. These symptoms will always be around in society. You see them in people and you see it in yourself. Only a true Munafiq will not see the symptoms in himself. Only a Munafiq feel safe from the disease of hypocrasy. It is a constant struggle for a person of Taqwa to maintain good health of his eeman which is comparable to maintaining your physical health.
The Prophet s.a.w was given a list of names of Munafiquun in Medina by Jibril (a.s). This was after a group of them was following the Prophet in the cover of darkness spying on him. The Prophet s.a.w told Hudzhaifah (r.a) the names of those people. Omar al-Khatab (r.a) was so worried whether his name was inside that list. A true person of Taqwa will constantly be worried that he might fall into the Munafiq disease without him knowing it.
We in our times do not have any list of names whatsoever to call another person a Munafiq. Even though if we see a clear cut case of a Munafiq behavior, we simply cannot say out that particular person is a Munafiq. Eeman resides in the heart, and we have no way of knowing what is inside his heart.
Usamah bin Zaid (r.a) whom the Prophet s.a.w loved as an adopted grandson, fought a Mushrik during a battle. The Mushrik dropped his weapon and Usamah was about to kill him when suddenly the Mushrik screamed out the “Syahada” (testimony of being a Muslim). A Muslim cannot kill a person who had proclaimed the faith of being a Believer. However Usamah (r.a) killed him as he assumed that the Mushrik must have feared for his life and that proclaimation must be a lie. When the Prophet heard about the incident, he was furious. He asked Usamah whether he had seen inside the heart of the man before he killed him? This is one example of how this religion is against blatantly killing people even though the Mushrik was clearly fighting Usama (r.a).
Therefore a person of Taqwa must be careful not to label anyone a Munafiq. In fact, he must check on himself whether he is a munafiq and not look into other people.
“They will have a painful punishment”
In this ayah, Allah said the Munafiquun will have a “painful” punishment as compared to “severe” punishment for those who declared themselves as “Disbelievers”.
What is the difference between “severe” punishment for the disbelievers compared to “painful” for the Munafiqs?
We will try to translate the actual meaning of the word used for “painful” punishment عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ as mentioned by Allah :-
Example: In this world when something bad happened to us, we will feel great pain but the pain is not constant at the same level. The longer time passes, the painful feeling will slowly subsides little by little. However for the Munafiquun, the “painful” punishment is one of constant pain even if it last for a million years and more. Allah is harsher on the Munafiquun than the Kafiruun.
“because of the lies they continue to make.”
Why is the Munafiquun punished more harshly than the Kafiruun? The Kafiruun put a cover between them and the Deen hence there is no ambiguity. However the Munafiquun had the cover lifted but they reject the truth solely due to sickness in their hearts, eg. jealousy, arrogance, to gain worldly benefits, etc. Their intention are sinister as they called themselves Muslims. These are a more dangerous group of people than the “Kafiruun”.
Some born-Muslims who walked the earth, but in fact they have rejected the religion, even ridiculing the religion. The harsher punishments are for the lies and damage they continue to make. Lying is a serious sign of hypocracy. Lying is a very serious matter in this religion. We must be ever conscious of this behavior in our daily affair. We have seen some "Ustaz" in their religious gatherings narrating clear cut False Hadith or fantasized stories of saints and divinely specialites of certain locations. They have no evident to verify the truth of those stories but to brainwash the followers of blind faith.