Surah Al-Baqarah 2:14
سُورَةُ البَقَرَةِ · Medinan · Verse 14 of 286
وَإِذَا لَقُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ قَالُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوْا۟ إِلَىٰ شَيَٰطِينِهِمْ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهْزِءُونَ
Translation
When they meet the believers, they say, ‘We believe,’ but when they are alone with their evil ones, they say, ‘We’re really with you; we were only mocking.’
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'And when they meet those who believe, they say: We believe; but when they are alone with their devils, they say: We are with you; we were only mocking.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the two-faced life, a pious face for the believers, a mocking one among their own kind: the exhausting duplicity of showing different selves to different rooms. Ask yourself: the hypocrite's defining trait is the switch, one identity here, another there, sincerity performed with the devout and cynicism shared with the like-minded. It is disturbingly modern: the persona for one audience, the opposite for another, no stable self underneath. It presses me to ask whether I am the same person in every room, with the religious and the irreligious, online and in person, with those I want to impress and those I don't. Is there one consistent 'me', or do I, too, quietly switch faces depending on who is watching?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Baqarah 2:14 is discussed in 15 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
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