It is reported that
‘Abdullaah b. Mas’ood رضي اللّه عنـه said:
The
example of the believer, the unbeliever and the hypocrite is that of three
people who arrived at a valley. One of them descended and passed through to the
other side. One of them descended until he reached half way, when the third man
on the edge of the valley called to him, “Woe to you, where are you going? You
will die. Come back.” The man who made it to the other side
called to him, “Come and be saved.” So [the man in
the middle of the valley] kept looking back and forth at the two [on each side
of the valley], when a flood came into the valley and drowned him.
The
man who passed through to the other side is the believer;
the one who drowned is the Munaafiq
(hypocrite).
Allaah سُبحانه وتعالى says:
مُّذَبْذَبِينَ بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ لاَ إِلَى هَـؤُلاء وَلاَ إِلَى
هَـؤُلاء وَمَن يُضْلِلِ اللّهُ فَلَن تَجِدَ لَهُ سَبِيلاً
"[The
hypocrites] sway between this and that, neither [fully] with the believers nor
with the unbelievers."
[An-Nisaa 4:143]
And
the one who remained at the edge of the valley [not able to escape the flood
and pass] is the Kaafir
(unbeliever).
{Source: Ibn Abee Haatim, Al-Tafseer
article 6144}
