Encyclopedia of Islam

hypocrites

  

321  J

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the tribes of Aws and Khazraj, from which many 

early Medinan converts had come. They appear to 

have had ulterior motives when they first became 

Muslims and did not disclose their real beliefs. 

They avoided helping Muhammad in his battles 

against his Meccan opponents, and some of them 

spread a slanderous rumor about his wife a

isha

bint

  a

bi

  b

akr

. They were also accused of being 

loyal to his rivals and conspiring with Jewish 

tribes in Medina against him.

The q

Uran

 mentions hypocrites 32 times, and 

one of its chapters even bears the name as its title 

(Q 63). It associates them with the worst enemies of 

Islam—the disbelievers (sing. 

kafir

) and the poly-

theists (sing. mushrik); all will be punished in hell-

fire (Q 4:140; 33:73). It accuses them of violating 

one of the chief moral imperatives of Islam; instead 

of commanding what is known to be right and 

forbidding what is reprehensible, “they command 

what is reprehensible and forbid what is known to 

be right” (Q 9:67). In the 

hadith

, the hypocrites are 

condemned as liars and promise breakers.

During the later Middle Ages, jurists allowed 

for treatment of hypocrites as Muslims under 

religious law as long as they kept their true 

beliefs to themselves. They were eligible to 

marry Muslim women and be buried as Mus-

lims. However, Sunnis and Shiis accused each 

other of being hypocrites, reflecting internal 

rivalries within the Muslim community as each 

group tried to discredit the other. Some modern 

Muslim political ideologues have attacked vari-

ous groups and movements in their writings by 

calling them hypocrites. Those attacked may be 

Muslims who belong to secular or leftist organi-

zations or Jews and other non-Muslim groups. 

Islamist and other opposition groups have used 

the term to criticize leaders of wealthy Arab oil 

countries who do not care for the poor, Muslims 

who assist Western governments in their battle 

against Islamic radicalism, and Muslims who 

refuse to join them in conducting 

Jihad

 against 

the enemies of Islam.

See also a

nsar

; 

commUnism

; e

migrants

; 

idola

-

try

; i

slamism

; J

Udaism

 

and

 i

slam

; s

hiism

; s

Unnism

.