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If you say: The restriction in the âyah

وَماَ يَخْدَعُونَ اِلَّا اَنْفُسَهُمْ1

implies that their deception has caused no harm to Islam and the Muslims. Yet Islam has suffered harm from nothing so severely as it has from the various types and branches of nifâq, which have spread like poison throughout the nations of the Islamic world?

You would be told: The spreading harm you witness and that circulating poison originate simply from their corrupted disposition, their decayed fitrah and their putrid conscience (vijdân), much like the spread of an infectious disease. They are not the product of the deceptions and tricks devised through their deliberate choice. For they intend to deceive Allah, the Prophet and the jamâ’ah of mu’mins; yet Allah knows all things, the Prophet (asm) receives wahy, and deception cannot stay concealed from the jamâ’ah of mu’mins for long, so they are not deceived. Thus, it is proven that they deceive none but themselves.