Surah Al-Baqarah Ayat 13 and 14 : Beautiful Explanation Nouman Ali Khan

In this blog article, In sha Allah I will try to explain little tafseer and beautiful insights of ayat 13 and 14 of surah al-baqarah. This article is my understanding based on one of the lectures of brother Nouman Ali Khan.

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Now, lets start understanding these beautiful aayaat of Quran Paak.

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Surah Al-Baqarah Ayat 13 (Verse 13)

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ آمِنُوا كَمَا آمَنَ النَّاسُ قَالُوا أَنُؤْمِنُ كَمَا آمَنَ السُّفَهَاءُ ۗ أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ السُّفَهَاءُ وَلَٰكِنْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
( "And when it is said to them (to hypocrites): "Believe as the people ( followers of Muhammad PBUH ) have believed," they say: "Shall we believe as the fools have believed?" Verily, they are the fools, but they know not. ")

Here Allah SWT says, when munafiq are told why don't you have iman as other sahaba(companions of Muhammad SAW) have like Abu bakr siddique r.a , Umar r.a and other sahaba r.anhum. Because these people had proven their Imaan. They had sacrificed a lot for Islam and deen of Allah. They are those who sacrificed their homes and travelled with Muhammad SAW. They Abandoned whatever they had. They Spent whatever they could in the cause of Islam. They had no other motive but to please Allah SWT.

So Munafiq said you want us to believe like these fools ? These guys were doing good business in Makkah and was living a lavish life but they left everything and came here in Madinah. In their point of view they used to think only fools can do this. There thinking was like 'OK you believe but you don't have to believe that much' , don't go crazy for sacrifices and so on. Those munafiq said we don't wanna be like them.

Believers don't need to Respond to this because Allah SWT himself defended them. Allah SWT said here in this ayat that these Munafiq(hypocrites) are in fact the fools. However they don't know. They don't know what kind of fool they are. So another symptom of hypocrisy is lack of knowledgeAnd in the same surah Allah says “ who leaves the legacy of Ibrahim except the one who fool themselves. And what is legacy of Ibrahim a.s?   Sacrifice... right… ?

So sacrifices are done by intelligent and whoever abandons sacrifices are the fools. Therefore believers who are doing sacrifices are on the legacy of Ibrahim a.s. So Allah SWT cleared that real fools are these hypocrites(munafiq) and not the believers.

Surah Al-Baqarah Ayat 14 (Verse 14)

وَإِذَا لَقُوا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قَالُوا آمَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوْا إِلَىٰ شَيَاطِينِهِمْ قَالُوا إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهْزِئُونَ
( And when they meet those who believe, they say: "We believe," but when they are alone with their Shayatin (devils - polytheists, hypocrites, etc.), they say: "Truly, we are with you; verily, we were but mocking." )

When they(hypocrites) meet believers they say we have Imaan. But do believers needs to say to each other that we have Iman ? No....Because it is known. Belief is in heart. You don't need to claim. but since these munaafiq(hypocrites) had no Imaan in their heart, the only option for them to claim it is by saying that they have Imaan. During khutba time also, before the Messenger Muhammad SAW used to get up and deliver khutbah, Leader of munafiq 'Abdullah ibn ubai' used to stand up before him. And used to say, Oh people this is the Messenger of Allah listen him carefully, he has good things to teach you and so on.

By the way if he didn't do that announcement Sahaba(Companions of Muhammad SAW) would listen Muahammad SAW anyway. Right ? But he just needed little bit of mike time and exposure in front of people,  as the politicians do. During jang-e-ahud he walked away with his people from the war field, thinking Muslims are going to be defeated. Still next week after that when khutba was being given he got up again saying people this is the messenger of Allah listen to him carefully. But this time some sahaba r.anhum grabbed him and sat him down.

He got furious because he did not get to do his show so he walked out of jum’a and at the entrance, some sahaba met him and said don't go and turn back to make istighfar(to ask forgiveness). He said I don't need any Istighfar and he walks out. So another symptom of hypocrisy describe by Muhammad SAW is When he is argued, debate, criticised he explodes in anger.

Arabic language is so beautiful. In arabic, Word 'Munafiq' comes from the word 'nafaqa' Which means 'lizard's home'. And in the desert lizard makes a hole that has two entrances so if fox or some danger comes from one side they can come out of other side and vice versa. From that we get the word 'Munafiq'. If Muslims are in trouble, Munaafiq can always have open door with kuffar. And if kuffar is losing then they say we are here and we are believers. So he got both exits open. And when they meet enemy of Islam they share secrets of Muslims with them. And they say We were just kidding with Muslims.


In this blog article, I tried to explain very little about what I understand from ayat 13 and 14 of surah Al Baqarah. This was based on my notes taken from one of the lectures of brother Nouman Ali Khan.

Also Read : Surah Al-Baqarah Ayat 15 to 17 : Beautiful Explanation Nouman Ali Khan

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