“نفاق” in the Masnavi

The hypocrite stands alongside the believer in prayer, yet comes not out of need and devotion but out of defiance and pretence.

In prayer, fasting, pilgrimage and almsgiving, the believers and hypocrites are engaged in a contest of victory and defeat.

In the end, victory belongs to the believers, and in the hereafter, defeat and checkmate fall upon the hypocrites.

Although both seem to be engaged in the same game (acts of worship), they are as far apart from each other as a man of Merv and a man of Rayy.

Each goes to their own proper station and destination, and each travels according to their own name and disposition.

If he (the hypocrite) is called a believer, his soul rejoices, but if he is called a hypocrite, he becomes fierce and filled with rage.

The believer's name is beloved because of his pure essence, while the hypocrite's name is loathed because of his inner flaws and corruption.

The letters mím and wáw and mím and nún (that make up the word 'believer') carry no honour in themselves, and the word 'believer' is nothing but a means of describing and pointing to that inner reality.

If you call the hypocrite a hypocrite, this vile name stings him inwardly like a scorpion.

If this name (the hypocrite) is not derived from Hell, then why does it carry the very taste and burning sense of Hell?

The ugliness of that ill name (the hypocrite) does not come from its letters, just as the bitterness of the seawater does not come from the container that holds it.

The letter is like a container, and the meaning within it is like water, but the boundless sea of meaning abides with God in the Mother of the Book (Ummu ’l-Kitáb).