Tafsir of At-Tawbah 9:126

In verse 126: يُفْتَنُونَ فِي كُلِّ عَامٍ مَّرَّ‌ةً أَوْ مَرَّ‌تَيْنِ (they are put to trial every year once or twice), hypocrites have been warned about their incorrigible hypocrisy and constant breach of trust which brought all sorts of trou¬bles for them every year once or twice. They saw the defeat of their disbelieving accomplices, the kuffar of Makkah. Then, they had to face the disgrace brought upon them when their hypocrisy was exposed. So, there was no dearth of warning signals for them. Incidentally, the count of ` once' or ` twice' here does not signify the numbers one and two as such. In fact, the purpose is to stress that this chain of action and reaction keeps moving all the time yet they take no lesson from what happens to them.