Tafsir of An-Nisa' 4:142

(Indeed, the hypocrites seek to deceive Allah) meaning, they do what the deceiver does; they manifest faith and conceal its opposite. Al-Hasan said, and Az-Zajjaj preferred this, that the intent is that they seek to deceive the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), along the lines of "They only pledge allegiance to Allah."

(And He is deceiving them) meaning, He is doing to them what the victor does in deception, as He left them in this world with their blood and wealth protected, while He prepared for them in the Hereafter the lowest depth of the Fire. It is said: His deception of them, Exalted is He, is that He will grant them a light on the Day of Resurrection, with which they will walk along with the Muslims, then He will snatch that light away from them and set a wall between them. This has also been narrated from Al-Hasan and As-Suddi, and a group of exegetes have preferred it. The investigation of this has already passed, and praise be to Allah.

The clause is in the place of an accusative for a state, or it is conjoined to the predicate of Inna, or it is an initial sentence like the first one.

(And when they stand for prayer, they stand lazily) meaning, sluggish and slow, having no energy or desire, like one compelled to perform an act, because they do not believe in a reward for performing it nor in a punishment for abandoning it. It has been read with a fatha on the kaf (kasalan), and both are plural forms of kaslan (lazy).

(Showing off to the people) so that they might think them believers. Mura'ah (showing off) is a reciprocal form (mufa'ala) derived from ru'yah (seeing), either in the sense of taf'il (intensive/causative), because the form fa'ala can mean afa'ala as found in their speech—like na'ama and na'ama—and the reading of Abdullah and Ishaq, "yurawuna," indicates that; or it is for reciprocation, because by their action in the sight of people, they see them, and they intend that their deeds be seen, while the people approve of them. So the reciprocity in the ru'yah is unified, and the difference is only in the object of the showing. Thus, it is not an objection to this view that the mufa'ala form requires, in its reality, the unification of the action and its object. The sentence is either an initial statement resulting from a question that arose from the discourse—as if it were said: "What do they desire by this standing?" and it was answered: "They show off," etc.—or it is a state from the pronoun in "they stand" or the pronoun in "lazily."

(And they do not remember Allah except a little) conjoined to "they show off." It is said that it is a state from the subject, meaning: they do not remember Him, Exalted is He, absolutely, except for a little time, or except for a little remembrance, since the show-off does not act except in the presence of the one he is showing off to, which is his least state; or because their remembrance with the tongue is little compared to the remembrance of the heart. It is said: It was described as "little" because it was not accepted, and whatever Allah, Exalted is He, does not accept is little, even if it were a lot. This has been narrated from Qatada. Ibn al-Mundhir extracted from Ali (may Allah honor his face) that he said: "No deed is little with piety; and how can that which is accepted be little?" It is said: The intent of the "remembrance" is the remembrance that occurs within the prayer, such as takbir and tasbih. Al-Jubba'i inclined toward this, supporting it with what Muslim and Abu Dawud extracted from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: "That is the prayer of the hypocrite; he sits watching the sun until, when it is between the horns of a devil, he stands and pecks four [prostrations] in which he does not remember Allah, Exalted is He, except a little." It is also said that "remembrance" means the prayer itself, because the speech is about it, not about the primary meaning of the word. It was permitted that "little" implies "non-existence," and the interpretation of the exception (the "except") in that case was considered problematic.

It was answered that the meaning is: they do not remember Allah, Exalted is He, except for a remembrance equivalent to non-existence because it does not benefit them; so there is no problem. It is not hidden what is in this, for "a little" in the sense of "non-existence" is metaphorical, and considering non-existence as that which has no benefit is another metaphor. Moreover, there is nothing in the discourse that indicates this. Some of the verifiers said regarding the interpretation of the discourse upon that estimation: the meaning then, if it were valid to count the lack of remembrance as remembrance, is that this is their remembrance, along the lines of the poet's saying: "And they have no fault, except that their swords have notches from the clashing of ranks." And there is in that, even if it is milder than the first, what is in it.

The verse was used as evidence for the desirability of entering into prayer with energy, and for the dislike of a person saying "I am lazy." Ibn Abi Hatim extracted from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that he disliked for a man to say "I am lazy," and he interprets this verse with that.