The Prophet (PBUH) led the Islamic Caravan to its final destination and victory, despite nonstop extreme challenges. Nations’ caravans normally focus on external enemies who openly challenge and try to harm them. But the Quran puts much more emphasis on the internal enemies who join as friends of the caravan and gain its trust and confidence, but then wait for the most vulnerable time to attack it and cause maximum damage.
If we look at world history – and sadly the Muslim history – then we will find that outside enemies have not caused as much damage to a nation as the damage caused by the machinations and plots of the hidden enemies within. This is what we see right in the beginning of the Islamic caravan led by the Prophet (PBUH).
The Quran after describing the two groups – those fully and openly accepting its message and those who fully and openly rejecting its message – it describes a third group whose condition is such that:
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَقُولُ آمَنَّا بِاللَّـهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَمَا هُم بِمُؤْمِنِينَ
(2:8) – And there are people who say, “We do believe in God and the Last Day,” the while they do not [really] believe. [Asad]
While the Believers and Non-believers accept or reject the truth openly, the hypocrites pay lip service to the truth of the Divine Code, without believing in it. They claim that they are believers but, in fact, they are not.
There are those who join the believers to intentionally harm them and there are those who join for their own ulterior motives. The Quran says that they think they can deceive Allah and the believers but, actually, they deceive themselves but they don’t understand the reality:
