the tribes of Aws and Khazraj, from which many
early Medinan converts had come. They appear to
have had ulterior motives when they first became
Muslims and did not disclose their real beliefs.
They avoided helping Muhammad in his battles
against his Meccan opponents, and some of them
spread a slanderous rumor about his wife aisha
bint abi bakr. They were also accused of being
loyal to his rivals and conspiring with Jewish
tribes in Medina against him.
The qUran mentions hypocrites 32 times, and
one of its chapters even bears the name as its title
(Q 63). It associates them with the worst enemies of
Islam—the disbelievers (sing. kafir) and the poly-
theists (sing. mushrik); all will be punished in hell-
fire (Q 4:140; 33:73). It accuses them of violating
one of the chief moral imperatives of Islam; instead
of commanding what is known to be right and
forbidding what is reprehensible, “they command
what is reprehensible and forbid what is known to
be right” (Q 9:67). In the hadith, the hypocrites are
condemned as liars and promise breakers.
During the later Middle Ages, jurists allowed
for treatment of hypocrites as Muslims under
religious law as long as they kept their true
beliefs to themselves. They were eligible to
marry Muslim women and be buried as Mus-
lims. However, Sunnis and Shiis accused each
other of being hypocrites, reflecting internal
rivalries within the Muslim community as each
group tried to discredit the other. Some modern
Muslim political ideologues have attacked vari-
ous groups and movements in their writings by
calling them hypocrites. Those attacked may be
Muslims who belong to secular or leftist organi-
zations or Jews and other non-Muslim groups.
Islamist and other opposition groups have used
the term to criticize leaders of wealthy Arab oil
countries who do not care for the poor, Muslims
who assist Western governments in their battle
against Islamic radicalism, and Muslims who
refuse to join them in conducting Jihad against
the enemies of Islam.
See also ansar; commUnism; emigrants; idola-
try; islamism; JUdaism and islam; shiism; sUnnism.Further reading: Muhammad ibn Ishaq, The Life of
Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah.
Translated by Alfred Guillaume (Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1955), 242–270; W. Montgomery Watt,
Muhammad at Medina (1956. New edition, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1981).K 322 hypocrites