The commentary on the statement of Him whose praise is majestic: {And when they meet those who believe, they say, "We believe"; but when they are alone with their devils, they say, "Indeed, we are with you"}

Abū Jaʿfar said: And this verse is the counterpart of the other verse in which Allah, majestic is His praise, informed about the hypocrites deceiving Allah, His Messenger, and the believers, where the Exalted said: {And of the people are some who say, "We believe in Allah and the Last Day"}. Then He, exalted is His remembrance, belied them by His statement: {but they are not believers}, and that by their saying that, they deceive Allah and those who believe. And likewise He informed about them in this verse that they say—to the believers who affirm the truth of Allah, His Book, and His Messenger—with their tongues: "We believe and affirm the truth of Muḥammad and what he brought from Allah," as a deception to safeguard their blood, wealth, and offspring, and to avert harm from them regarding those; and that when they are alone with their rebellious ones and the people of arrogance, evil, and wickedness among them and among the rest of the people of polytheism (1) who are upon the like of what they are upon of disbelief in Allah, His Book, and His Messenger—and they are their devils, and we have already demonstrated in what has passed of our book that the devils of anything are its rebellious ones—they say to them: "Indeed, we are with you," meaning: We are with you upon your religion, your supporters against whoever opposes you in it, and your allies to the exclusion of the Companions of Muḥammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him, "we were only mocking" Allah, His Book, His Messenger, and his Companions, like that which—:

349- Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAlāʾ (2) narrated to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd narrated to us, he said: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra narrated to us, from Abū Rawq, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās regarding His statement: {And when they meet those who believe, they say, "We believe"}, he said: There were men among the Jews who, when they met the Companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, or some of them, would say: "We are upon your religion." But when they were alone with their companions—and they were their devils—they would say: "Indeed, we are with you; we were only mocking."