And there are people who say: "We do believe in God and the Last Day," the while they do not [really] believe. 8 They deceive God and the believers. However, they have deceived no one but themselves, a fact of which they are not aware. 9 In their hearts is a disease, so Allah has increased their disease; and for them is a painful punishment, because of their lies. 10 When asked to desist from spreading corruption in the land they say: "Why, we are reformers." 11 Pay heed! It is they who are mischievous, but they do not have sense. 12 And when it said unto them: believe even as mankind have believed, they say: shall we believe even as the fools have believed? Lo! verily it is they who are the fools; and yet they know not. 13 And when they meet those who have believed, they say: We believe. And when they are alone with their satans, they say: verily we are with you, we were but mocking. 14 But God will turn the joke against them and allow them to sink deeper into evil and wander perplexed in their wickedness. 15 They have traded guidance for error, but their bargain has had no profit and they have missed the true guidance. 16 The likeness of them is as the likeness of a man who kindled a fire, and when it lit all about him God took away their light, and left them in darkness unseeing 17 Deaf, dumb and blind; and they are not to return. 18 Or [it is] like a rainstorm from the sky within which is darkness, thunder and lightning. They put their fingers in their ears against the thunderclaps in dread of death. But Allah is encompassing of the disbelievers. 19 The lightning well-nigh takes away their sight; whenever it gives them light, they advance therein, and whenever darkness falls around them, they stand still. And if God so willed, He could indeed take away their hearing and their sight: for, verily, God has the power to will anything. 20