The hypocrites seek to trick God but He is tricking them. When they stand up to pray they stand up lazily and to be seen by people and they do not remember God save a little. Wavering all the time-not to these neither to those; and he whom God sends astray you will never find for him a way. The trickery of the hypocrites is the outward display of conformity on the path iẓhāru al-wifāqi fī l-Ṭarīqa while inwardly [they] cling to association [of others with God] in [their] creed wa-istishʿāru al-shirki fī l-ʿaqīda. The trickery of the Real toward them is what they imagine regarding salvation [after they] decided they have a special entitlement to it. But when the covering is lifted they will know for certain that what they thought was drink sharāb was a mirage sarāb. God most high said “And there will appear to them from God that which they had never reckoned” [39:47]. When they stand up to pray... The sign of hypocrisy is finding energy when one can be seen by others but then losing resolve when the oppor- tunity to be seen passes. Wavering all the time... Those who are worth the least among created beings are those who remove the vest of servanthood akhassu al-khalqi man yadaʿu ṣidāra al-ʿubūdiyya and have not found a way to true freedom wa-lam yajid sabīlan ilā ḥaqīqati al-ḥurriyya. They do not have even a sliver of precious nobility fa-lā lahu min al-ʿizzi shaẓīyya nor an agree- able way of living in their heedlessness wa-lā fī l-ghaflati ʿīshatu hanīyya.
