your senses, the only solution will be for you to be paraded before the people for lying so that they do not put their trust in you and your sickness does not spread.
Now the positioning of the parts of the phrases relatively to each other:
The first phrase: that is, “Fain would they deceive Allah and those who believe (Yukhādi‘ūna Allāh wa alladhīna āmanū):” the use of the term deception to describe their act, and of the imperfect tense, and especially the third form of the verb, and particularly using the name of Allah in place of the Prophet, and “who believe (alladhīna āmanū)” in place of ‘the believers’ (al-mu’minūn), all point explicitly to the impossibility of their aim to deceive. It thrusts this impossibility before the eyes, making people abominate it and shudder at it. For the parabolic metaphor (al-isti‘āra al-tamthīlīyya) contained in the word ‘deception’ (al-khudā‘) arouses revulsion. The heart too recoils at the descriptiveness of the imperfect tense and the continuance it infers.
As in the verse, “The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto,(42:40) the reciprocity expressed by the use of the third form of the verb suggests that their deception will be fruitless. For in the third form of the verb, the act of ‘the doer’ is a cause of the act of the one acted upon, and here the latter is a cause of the doer’s deception being fruitless and without effect; indeed, it shows their deception to be feeble and without substance, like turning the tables on someone. For example, you mock someone supposing him to be unaware of it, but inwardly he knows and is secretly mocking you.
The name “Allah” states explicitly the impossibility of what they intend, for to deceive the Prophet (Upon whom be peace) entails deceiving Allah the Most High, and the reasoning faculty cannot accept such deception.
In the choice of “and those who believe (wa alladhīna āmanū)” rather than ‘the believers,’ that is, in the choice of the relative clause and the attribute of belief, is a sign that the dissemblers try to ingratiate themselves with the believers through the attribute of belief, exciting that vein of the believers in order to win their love so that they can insinuate themselves among them. It suggests too that since the minds of the community of believers are illuminated with belief, the dissemblers’ deceptions are not hidden from them, which leads to those deceptions being fruitless.
The second phrase; that is, “but they deceive only themselves (wa mā yakhda‘ūna illā anfusahum):” in the restriction expressed by “only” is a sign of their total foolishness, since their act rebounds on them. Like a per-