﴿ وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُمْ لَيَقُولُنَّ إِنَّمَا كُنَّا نَخُوضُ وَنَلْعَبُ ۚ قُلْ أَبِٱللَّهِ وَءَايَٰتِهِۦ وَرَسُولِهِۦ كُنتُمْ تَسْتَهْزِءُونَ ﴾

“Yet, indeed, if thou wert to question them. they would surely answer, "We were only indulging in idle talk, and were playing [with words]. Say: "Were you, then. mocking at God and His messages and His Apostle?”

At the time of the battle of Tabuk, those who had set out with the Prophet Muhammad were treated as staunch and courageous people, while those who remained behind at home were considered hypocrites and cowards. The hypocrites who stayed at home started ridiculing the Prophet and his companions in order to belittle the action taken by them. Some said, ‘In these reciters of the Quran, we see nothing except that they are the hungriest among us, the most extreme liars among us and the worst cowards among us.’ Some asked, ‘Do you think that fighting the Romans is like internal fighting among the Arabs? By God! Tomorrow all these people will be seen tied and bound.’ Others said, ‘This gentleman thinks that he will conquer and capture the palaces and castles of Rome. It’s a pity.’ (Tafsir ibn Kathir). When the Prophet Muhammad came to know about this, he called them and asked them about it. They said, ‘We were simply talking jocularly. In reply to this, the Quran has this to say: ‘Would you make a mockery of God and of His Revelations and His Messenger?’ The message of God is always conveyed through some human being. If this man is apparently ordinary in the eyes of the observers, they start to mock him. But this mockery is not against that man; it is against God Himself. Those who do this only prove that they are not serious about God’s religion. Such people are most guilty in the eyes of God. Their false justifications will never be successful in hiding the reality. Hypocrisy and apostasy (irtidad) after accepting Islam are two aspects of the same fact. If a man, after adopting Islam, openly becomes an infidel (disbeliever) then this is irtidad; and if in his mind and heart, he is far away from Islam but before other people shows himself as a Muslim, this is hypocrisy. The fate of such hypocrites before God is the same as of those who have committed irtidad. However, if they sincerely admit their wrongs and reform themselves before death, God may relent towards them.