[They would deceive God and the believers; and only themselves they deceive; and they are not aware.] Deception (mukhādaʿa) is the act of deceit from two parties. It is to manifest good [intentions] while concealing evil [ones]. To deceive God is to deceive His Messenger, on account of God's saying whoever obeys the Messenger, verily obeys God [Q. 4:80] and His saying and you threw not when you threw but God threw [Q. 8:17]; and because he [the Prophet] is His beloved. A ḥadīth has it that: 'And My servant does not cease to approach me through supererogatory acts until I love him. And when I love him, I become his hearing with which he hears and his sight with which he sees and his tongue with which he speaks and his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks'. Their deceit of God and the believers is their outward display of belief and love while concealing disbelief and enmity; while God's and the believers' deception of these [aforementioned] is keeping the peace [with them] and applying the rules of Islam in their case by deeming their blood illicit and giving protection to their possessions and otherwise, while what lies in store for them is a painful chastisement, an evil end and a terrible outcome, as well as their degradation in this world on account of their being exposed by God's informing them [the believers, of this reality] and the revelation about their status. However, the difference between the two acts of deception is that theirs [the disbelievers'] only succeeds in destroying their souls, filling them with anguish, leaving them with nothing but the evil consequence of their deeds and punishment, multiplying for them the darkness, disbelief and hypocrisy and bringing together the reasons for the perishing, banishment and wretchedness of these [souls]; whereas, [their] being deceived by God affects to the ultimate degree and brings them the most severe destruction, as where God says And they schemed, and God schemed, and God is the best of schemers [Q. 3:54]. As a result of being extremely engrossed in this ignorance of theirs, they do not sense this manifest matter [at all].
