they were deceived regarding the matter of their Hereafter?

It is replied: It is an error to say that they deceived the believers. For if we said that, we would affirm for them an actual deception that succeeded against the believers (1), just as if we said: "So-and-so killed so-and-so", we would affirm for him an actual killing committed against so-and-so. Rather, we say: The hypocrites sought to deceive their Lord and the believers, but they did not deceive them; rather, they deceived themselves, as He, Exalted is His praise, said, and no one else — analogous to what you say regarding a man who fought another and killed himself instead of killing his opponent: "So-and-so fought so-and-so, but he killed none except himself", thus affirming his fighting his opponent, negating his killing his opponent, and affirming his killing himself. Likewise, you say: "The hypocrite sought to deceive his Lord and the believers, but he deceived none except himself", thus establishing his seeking to deceive his Lord and the believers, while negating that he deceived anyone other than himself, because the deceiver is the one for whom the deception was actually realized and its act executed. Thus, the hypocrites did not deceive anyone other than themselves, because whatever wealth and family they possessed was not owned by the Muslims over them — whether during the state of their attempting to deceive them out of it through their hypocrisy or prior to it — such that they rescued it from them through their deception; rather, they merely defended it through their lying and displaying with their tongues that which differed from what was in their conscience, while God judges for them regarding their wealth, themselves, and their offspring in their outward affairs according to the ruling of the religion to which they affiliated themselves, while God is All-Knowing of what they conceal of their affairs. Indeed, the deceiver is only one who tricks another out of his property while the deceived is unaware of the location of his deceiver's trick. However, when the one sought to be deceived is aware of his companion's attempt to deceive him, while no harm reaches him from that deception, but rather he merely forbears toward the one who thinks he is deceiving him as a gradual enticement, so that he reaches an end wherein the proof against him is fully established for the punishment that He will inflict upon him when he reaches it (2), while the enticed one is unaware of his true state with his enticer, nor aware of His knowledge of his inner conscience, and that his enticer's granting him respite — leaving off punishing him for his crime (3) — is so that the deceitful deceiver reaches the utmost limit of his deserving the punishment of his enticer,