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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Hypocrites (a Commentary On Surah Munafiqun) Chapter 5 : Hypocrities and Repetence وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ تَعَالَوْا يَسْتَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ لَوَّوْا رُؤُوسَهُمْ وَرَأَيْتَهُمْ يَصُدُّونَ وَهُم مُّسْتَكْبِرُونَ “When it is said to them, 'Come, the Messenger of Allah will pray for your forgiveness,' they turn aside their heads, and you see them turning away their faces in arrogance.”[^28] سَوَاء عَلَيْهِمْ أَسْتَغْفَرْتَ لَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تَسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ لَن يَغْفِرَ اللَّهُ لَهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الْفَاسِقِينَ “It is the same for them whether you pray for their forgiveness or not.

Allah will not forgive them. Surely, Allah guides not rebellious transgressors.”[^29] A sinner, who realizes that he is a sinner and that he has transgressed the limits set for him by Allah, will, try to find a way to repent. But a sinner who does not recognize that he sins, who thinks that the sins he commits are actually good deeds, will not try to find a way to repent.

If one suggests to him to follow the correct path, the path which will bring him success, he will arrogantly reject it because of his ignorance. Hypocrites belong to this second group of sinners. They pretend to be Muslims and to have faith. All that they do is fake; they do not have sincere faith in Allah or His Messenger. In reality, they epitomize compound ignorance (jahl murakkab) unaware of both of their mistakes and of their ignorance.

It is because of this kind of ignorance that whenever anyone of the hypocrites during the time of the Prophet was encouraged to go before the Prophet (s) and ask him to ask for forgiveness, he would arrogantly refuse and shake his head, showing that he does not need the Prophet to do that for him. The reason for this is that such hypocrites did not believe in the Prophet or his religion.

This kind of behavior is not exclusive to hypocrites, rather it is found in any society that is ignorant, but unaware or its ignorance. Such a society will never do anything to fix itself.

It is for this reason that scholars have said that guiding people who possess simple ignorance (jahl basi-t?), or ignorant people who admit that they are ignorant, is easy, while guiding people who possess compound ignorance, ignorant people who do not know that they are ignorant, is difficult or even impossible.

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