This verse is the Qur’an’s direct answer to the statement in the previous verse. In privacy with their devils, they said, “We are only mockers.” Now the Qur’an shows that their mockery does not remain unanswered: Allāhu yastahzi’u bihim — the One God mocks them.

This sentence must be understood carefully. Their mockery came from deception, arrogance, belittling faith, and making truth into a game. But attributing “mockery” to the One God is not a light, empty, or polluted human reaction. The Qur’an returns the same word they used about themselves as a divine answer, showing that mockery of truth ultimately returns to the mockers themselves.

In our reading, this return happens through the order and laws of existence. They imagine that they are mocking faith, but in reality they deprive themselves of faith, guidance, truthfulness, and peace. They think they have played others, but that very game is reflected back against them through the law of creation. In some Eastern traditions, as a rough mental approximation, one might speak of something like “karma”: a person receives the return of what they put into the world. In the Qur’an, however, this is not an independent force apart from the One God; it is part of His lordship, justice, and patterns within the self and existence.

So Allāhu yastahzi’u bihim means that the Owner and Lord of existence, through His laws, returns the consequence of their mockery to them. This return may appear in this world as the darkening of the heart, the loss of sensitivity to guidance, the normalization of deception, and being caught in wandering. It may also appear in the Hereafter in a clearer and more painful form.

They thought they had turned the believers into objects of play. Among the believers they said, “We have believed,” and in privacy with their devils they said, “We are with you; we are only mocking.” But the Qur’an shows that this game is actually to their own harm. Just as in verse 9 their deception returned to their own selves, here their mockery also returns to themselves. They mock truth, but in reality they deprive themselves of truth, guidance, and stability.

Then the verse says: wa-yamudduhum fī ṭughyānihim — and He extends them in their transgression. This extension, like the increase of disease in verse 10, should not be understood as initial wrongdoing or causeless compulsion. They have already chosen the path of deception, concealment, mockery, corruption, and belittling faith. When a human being remains in transgression instead of returning, that same path continues for them and the grounds of deeper falling are opened.

Yamudduhum can bring to mind someone given time and space, but who does not use that time to return. Instead, they go farther on the same path of error. Divine respite is therefore not always a sign of approval. Sometimes a person is given time, but because the heart is diseased and the measure has become inverted, that very time becomes fuel for deeper transgression.

Ṭughyān is not merely simple disobedience. It is a state in which a person crosses the boundary of truth, justice, devotion, and the proper measure, placing the self beyond its right limit. In this context, their transgression is the continuation of hypocrisy itself: claiming faith without the reality of faith, deception, self-deception, disease of the heart, corruption under the name of reform, belittling believers, and mocking truth.

The verse ends: yaʿmahūn — they wander blindly. This is not blindness of the eyes. It is the loss of inward direction. A person may see, speak, plan, and move, but because the compass of truthfulness has been lost, they cannot find the way.

This verse shows that one of the hardest consequences of hypocrisy is being left in the very path one has chosen. Sometimes a person assumes that because they still have opportunity, they are succeeding. But the Qur’an warns that being extended in transgression can itself be part of the divine answer. Outwardly, a person moves forward, speaks, plans, builds groups, and imagines themselves clever; inwardly, they are sinking into deeper wandering.

This verse also has a clear connection to the previous verses. In verse 10, the disease of their hearts increased through continued lying and deception. In verse 14, they confirmed mockery of faith in privacy with their devils. Now verse 15 shows the result of this path: extension in transgression and remaining in bewildered wandering. A path that began with deception reaches inward disorientation.

The Qur’an’s answer to their mockery is therefore not merely an external threat. It reveals an inward and moral law. Whoever mocks truth gradually loses the ability to see truth. Whoever makes faith into a game is deprived of the peace of faith. Whoever withdraws to their devils and confirms their voice is extended in that same path of transgression, until they remain in their own wandering.

• Al-Baqarah 2:14— In privacy with their devils, they say they are mockers.
• Al-Baqarah 2:9— Their deception returns to their own selves; the same pattern appears in their mockery.
• Al-Baqarah 2:10— The increase of disease in their hearts as a consequence of continuing on the wrong path.
• Al-Baqarah 2:16— They purchased misguidance with guidance; their trade did not profit and they were not guided.
• Al-A‘raf 7:186— Being left in transgression and wandering as one of the divine patterns regarding those deprived of guidance.
• Al-An‘am 6:110— Hearts and sights being turned, and being left to wander in transgression.
• Al-Haqqah 69:11— Use of the root of transgression for overflowing water, witnessing the root sense of crossing the limit.
• An-Nisa 4:142— The hypocrites deceive the One God, while the truth of deception returns to them.
• At-Tawbah 9:79— Those who mock the believers meet the divine answer.