description — while God, Blessed is His Name, is deceiving him, by forsaking him and denying him good insight into what contains the salvation of his soul in his ultimate return, just as He informed in His statement: {And let not those who disbelieve think that Our granting them respite is good for themselves. We only grant them respite so that they may increase in sin} [Sūrat Āl ʿImrān: 178], and in the sense that He informed He will do to them in the Hereafter by His statement: {On the day when hypocritical men and hypocritical women will say to those who believed, "Wait for us that we may acquire some of your light." It will be said, "Go back behind yourselves and seek light." Then a wall will be set up between them with a door, its interior containing mercy, but its exterior facing torment} [Sūrat al-Ḥadīd: 13]. So that is analogous to all other instances of speech expressing the pattern of yufāʿilu and mufāʿil. Some grammarians among the people of Basra used to say: Mufāʿala only occurs between two things, but it was said: "They deceive God" in their own estimation, through their belief that they will not be punished; yet they know the contrary in themselves through the proof of God, Blessed is His Name, established over His creation through knowing Him, and they deceive none but themselves. He said: And some of them said: "And they deceive not", meaning: they deceive themselves by leaving them alone (1). And mufāʿala may stem from a single party in many instances.

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The commentary on the interpretation of the statement of God, Exalted is His praise: ﴿And they deceive not except themselves﴾

If a questioner should say: Did not the hypocrites deceive the believers — by what they manifested with their tongues of speaking the truth — regarding their lives, their wealth, and their offspring, so that their worldly affairs were secured for them, even if