بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful
إِذَا جَآءَكَ ٱلْمُنَٰفِقُونَ قَالُوا۟ نَشْهَدُ إِنَّكَ لَرَسُولُ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ إِنَّكَ لَرَسُولُهُۥ وَٱللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّ ٱلْمُنَٰفِقِينَ لَكَٰذِبُونَ
When the hypocrites come to you they say, ‘We bear witness that you are indeed the apostle of Allah.’ Allah knows that you are indeed His Apostle, and Allah bears witness that the hypocrites are indeed liars.
ٱتَّخَذُوٓا۟ أَيْمَٰنَهُمْ جُنَّةًۭ فَصَدُّوا۟ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ سَآءَ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
They make a shield of their oaths, and bar from the way of Allah. Evil indeed is what they used to do.
ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ءَامَنُوا۟ ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا۟ فَطُبِعَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ فَهُمْ لَا يَفْقَهُونَ
That is because they believed and then disbelieved, so their hearts were sealed. Hence, they do not understand.
۞ وَإِذَا رَأَيْتَهُمْ تُعْجِبُكَ أَجْسَامُهُمْ ۖ وَإِن يَقُولُوا۟ تَسْمَعْ لِقَوْلِهِمْ ۖ كَأَنَّهُمْ خُشُبٌۭ مُّسَنَّدَةٌۭ ۖ يَحْسَبُونَ كُلَّ صَيْحَةٍ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ هُمُ ٱلْعَدُوُّ فَٱحْذَرْهُمْ ۚ قَٰتَلَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ ۖ أَنَّىٰ يُؤْفَكُونَ
When you see them, their bodies impress you, and if they speak, you listen to their speech. Yet they are like dry logs set reclining [against a wall]. They suppose every cry is directed against them. They are the enemy, so beware of them. May Allah assail them, where do they stray?!
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The chapter opens on the hypocrites (munafiqun) at their most brazen: coming to the Prophet to swear 'we bear witness that you are Allah's Messenger.' Every present source dwells on the paradox that this sworn statement is true in its content yet a lie in its speaker. Al-Tabarsi and al-Tusi put it grammatically: their falsehood lies not in their tongues -- which spoke a truth -- but in their claim to believe it in their hearts; both draw the lesson that the reality of faith is the heart's assent, so that one who says what he disbelieves is a liar (al-Tusi adds that this refutes those who hold recognition to be coerced). Al-Mizan frames the same point technically as a lie of the reporter (kadhib mukhbiri) rather than of the report, which is why God appends His own attestation 'Allah knows you are His Messenger.'
On the shield of oaths (v.2) the sources converge: al-Tabarsi, al-Tusi and al-Mizan all read the false oaths as a cover -- against being killed, captured or despoiled, and to bar others from the path -- while the Enlightening Commentary notes that a shield belongs to the battlefield, marking the hypocrites as permanently at war with the believers. For the sealed heart (v.3) al-Mizan insists the sealing is never God's initial act but always requital for the hypocrite's own choice; al-Tabarsi offers both that reading and that the seal is a mark by which angels tell them from the believers.
Verse 4's portrait -- impressive bodies, eloquent speech, but 'propped-up timber' -- is read unanimously as outward splendour over inward hollowness. The Enlightening Commentary relays (from al-Kashshaf) that Ibn Ubayy, chief of the hypocrites, was robust, handsome and eloquent, and that 'every cry is against them' reflects the traitor's chronic fear. Al-Qummi supplies the sura's occasion in full: the well-dispute at the raid of al-Muraysi' (Banu al-Mustaliq, 5 AH), Ibn Ubayy's outburst 'the mightier will expel the meaner,' the youth Zayd ibn Arqam's report, and the revelation that vindicated Zayd and disgraced Ibn Ubayy -- a narrative al-Bahrani corroborates and which cross-checks with the well-known report in al-Bukhari. Al-Bahrani also carries an al-Ihtijaj tradition from Imam al-Baqir (the answer to Tawus al-Yamani about those who bore a true testimony yet lied) and the account of Ibn Ubayy's own loyal son offering to bring his father's head, to which the Prophet answered, 'Rather we will keep good company with him while he is with us.' Distinct to al-Bahrani is a narration from Imam al-Kazim recasting nifaq as rejection of the walaya of the Prophet's legatee -- reading 'the path' as the legatee himself; this Imami ta'wil is presented strictly as attributed and flagged for review.