The hypocrite shows something and conceals something other than the truth and other than what shows in front of people, and he has two directions and two faces, and he is more harmful and painful in society than the apparent enemy because the apparent enemy you see his enmity, while the hypocrite is of two faces.

The Holy Qur’an has mentioned many verses about this incurable disease that afflicts societies, which is hypocrisy, as it is a danger lurking within human societies. The friend is well-known, and the enemy’s enmity is a clear a person can be careful of. As for the hypocrite, he is a danger lurking within the body of the nation.

The word hypocrite in Arabic is derived from the name of a desert animal called the jerboa, which is a deceptive desert animal that enters from one place and exits from another one. Likewise, the hypocrite deceives society, and above that he deceives himself. That is why Allah (swt) says:

(. بَشِّرِ الْمُنَافِقِينَ بِأَنَّ لَهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا ) (Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment): Tidings is usually for something good and warning is for something bad. But here Allah (swt) uses this method of speech to ridicule of them, because they think that they are deceiving Allah (swt), just as when you say to a person known to be stingy: Welcome, Hatem Al-Tai, as a manner of sarcasm.