9/101-106 — Three groups, and those left suspended
Wa mimman ḥawlakum mina'l-aʿrābi munāfiqūn wa min ahli'l-madīnati maradū ʿala'l-nifāq lā taʿlamuhum naḥnu naʿlamuhum
"Among the bedouin around you, and among the people of Medina, there are hypocrites; they have grown obstinate in hypocrisy. You do not know them; We know them."
مَرَدُوا۟ — root م-ر-د: to grow used to a thing and harden, to form a crust. The lexicographers record its relation to the root's sense of "hairless, bare" (amrad): that nothing is left on it to take hold of.
I convey this as the lexicographers give it and add this as an observation: the word describes hypocrisy not as an act but as a settledness.
لَّا تَعْلَمُهُمْ نَحْنُ نَعْلَمُهُمْ — and the limit of knowledge is drawn openly. This is one of the most striking notes in the sūra, and I give it as my own reading: throughout the sūra the hypocrites have been related at length; here it is said that who they are, one by one, is not known. What is described, that is, is an attribute, not an established list.
A third group: those who confess. And their description is worth recording: khalaṭū ʿamalan ṣāliḥan wa ākhara sayyiʾā — "they mixed a good deed with another that was bad."
The root خ-ل-ط: to mix. I record this as an observation: the verse does not separate them into good or bad — it names them as mixed. And a state is described that is the exact opposite of the concept of ikhlāṣ (the sifting out of what is mixed) treated in al-Zumar at 39/2.
خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَٰلِهِمْ صَدَقَةً تُطَهِّرُهُمْ وَتُزَكِّيهِم بِهَا وَصَلِّ عَلَيْهِمْ إِنَّ صَلَوٰتَكَ سَكَنٌ لَّهُمْ (103)
Sakanun lahum — "a stillness for them." The root س-ك-ن was treated in al-Fatḥ at 48/4 (sakīna) and in al-Anʿām at 6/96 (jaʿala'l-layla sakanā). I rely on that treatment.
And two verbs must be recorded: tuṭahhiruhum (it cleanses them) and tuzakkīhim (it purifies and increases them). The root ز-ك-و states both cleanness and growth.
"And others are left to the command of God: either He punishes them or He accepts their turning back."
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the verse's own wording: in enumerating three groups, the sūra issues no ruling about the third. Immā … wa immā — two possibilities are left open.
And this coincides with the posture kept in the method (Method): a text can leave blank the place about which it has no ruling. The sūra applies this within itself — and indeed in verse 101 it had said lā taʿlamuhum.