The Quran

101

Preface

وَمِمَّن حَولَكُم مِنَ الأَعرابِ مُنافِقونَ ۖ وَمِن أَهلِ المَدينَةِ ۖ مَرَدوا عَلَى النِّفاقِ لا تَعلَمُهُم ۖ نَحنُ نَعلَمُهُم ۚ سَنُعَذِّبُهُم مَرَّتَينِ ثُمَّ يُرَدّونَ إِلىٰ عَذابٍ عَظيمٍ

Yusuf Ali

Certain of the desert Arabs round about you are hypocrites, as well as (desert Arabs) among the Medīna folk¹: they are obstinate in hypocrisy: thou knowest them not: We know them: twice shall We punish them²: and in addition shall they be sent to a grievous penalty.

The desert Arabs were not all simple folk. There were cunning hypocrites among them: both among certain tribes encamped round about Medīna and certain others in Medīna itself. I understand that both groups are of the A'rab, to whom the context refers, and not of the settled citizens of Medīna, whose Hypocrites were already referred to in previous sections. They might look simple, but they were, in their ignorance, all the more obstinate and hypocritical.
Their punishment in this world was double, viz., not only in their discomfiture, but because in their obstinate ignorance, they failed to understand the accomplished facts, while cleverer men realised that their hostility to Islam was hopeless. In addition to their discomfiture in this life, they would have to meet the penalties to come.