And when they meet those who have entered faith (iman), they say, “We have entered faith”; and when they withdraw toward their devils (shayatin), they say, “Indeed, we are with you; we are only mockers.”
This verse uncovers a more hidden face of hypocrisy. In the previous verses, they claimed faith while they were not believers; imagined they were deceiving the One God and the believers while deception returned to their own selves; carried a disease in their hearts; called corruption reform; and called the believers foolish. Now the Qur’an shows how this condition appears in two different spaces: one speech when meeting the believers, and another speech in privacy with their devils.
The verse says: wa-idhā laqū alladhīna āmanū qālū āmannā — when they meet those who have believed, they say, “We have believed.” This is the same claim as verse 8, but here it is repeated in the social scene. Before the believers, they speak the language of faith, not from truthfulness, but to maintain a suitable face among the people of faith.
Then the verse says: wa-idhā khalaw ilā shayāṭīnihim — and when they withdraw toward their devils. The use of khalaw with ilā is subtle. The verse does not merely say that they sit with their devils. It shows that they separate from the space of the believers and turn toward their devils. Their privacy is a return to a hidden refuge and to the inward center of their allegiance.
Shayāṭīnihim, their devils, does not have to mean only an outward being. The Qur’an speaks of devils among humans and jinn: forces, people, voices, and directions that pull the human being away from the path of truth. A devil can whisper, and that whisper is not always seen as an external enemy. Sometimes, in a person’s private space, the inner voices that invite them toward justification, mockery, concealment, hiding truth, or continuing error become, in practice, the voice of the devil.
Yet this verse is not only about an initial whisper. They are not simply in a moment of doubt or ordinary struggle. When they withdraw toward their devils, they say with emphasis: innā maʿakum — indeed, we are with you. They do not merely hear the voice of temptation; they confirm it and declare companionship with it. Here, privacy becomes the field of decision and allegiance.
The difference between the two statements matters. With the believers, they say: āmannā — we have believed. This is a verbal declaration. But with their devils, they say: innā maʿakum — indeed, we are with you. The second sentence carries stronger emphasis and steadiness. Outwardly, they claim faith; privately, they state more firmly where their companionship really lies.
For this reason, privacy is the key point of the verse. In the gathering of the believers, they say, “We have believed.” But when they return to their private space and to their devils, they say, “Indeed, we are with you.” Their true attachment becomes visible in privacy. Their public language is with faith, but their hidden companionship is with forces that turn faith into mockery.
In our reading, this privacy with devils stands opposite to ṣalāt and remaining connected to the path of truth. If a person remains connected to truth, remembrance, ṣalāt, and the path of the messengers, the inner voice can awaken them toward good, show them their error, and call them to reform, repentance, truthfulness, and return. Such a voice pulls the human being out of justifying error and toward healing it.
But if a person suppresses the voice of truth, or gives the voice of deception room to grow within, that same privacy can become a field of whispering and companionship with devils. One justification brings another. One act of mockery moves a person farther from modesty and truthfulness. One concealment prepares the ground for further concealment. Just as in verse 10 the disease of the heart increased through continuing on the wrong path, here privacy with devils shows how a human being may join whispering, mockery, and concealment instead of remaining connected to the Real.
Before their devils, they say: innamā naḥnu mustahzi’ūn — we are only mockers. This sentence shows that their claim of faith is not serious to them. They have made it a tool of play, deception, and ridicule. They are not merely insincere in faith; they make the believers’ faith an object of mockery. This continues the attitude of verse 13, where they called the believers foolish. Whoever sees sincere faith as foolishness will mock it in private.
In Surah Al-An‘am, the Qur’an speaks of devils among humans and jinn who inspire adorned and deceptive speech to one another. That helps us understand this hidden space. Devils do not always work through open command; sometimes they beautify speech, present deception as cleverness, make mockery of truth appear as intelligence, and pull a person away from truthfulness and reform in private.
Hypocrisy in this verse is not only social two-facedness; it is two kinds of connection. One outward connection with the believers, for maintaining face and position; and one hidden connection with devils, for feeding deception, mockery, and concealment of truth. The question is not only what a person says in public; it is what voice they accompany in private, what direction they seek refuge in, and what they allow to grow.
This verse warns us that a human being’s privacy is a serious field of testing. Sometimes a person’s truth is not revealed in formal speech, but in privacy: where they can hear the voice of truth and reform, or give room to the voice of whispering and sink more deeply into mockery, justification, and deception.
The next verse clarifies the answer to this mockery. They say that they are mocking, but the Qur’an shows that the result of this mockery returns to them. Just as in verse 9 their deception returned to their own selves, here too their mockery leaves them in transgression and wandering. Verse 14 is therefore the direct opening into verse 15.