[4:142-4:143] The hypocrites seek to trick God, but He is tricking them. When they stand up to pray, they stand up lazily and to be seen by people, and they do not remember God save a little. * Wavering, all the time - not to these, neither to those; and he whom God sends astray, you will never find for him a way.
The trickery of the hypocrites is their outward display of conformity on the path while they inwardly cling to belief in what is other than God (shirk). The trickery of the Real is in what they imagine regarding salvation and what they have determined is their special entitlement to it. When the covering is lifted, they will know for certain that what they thought was drink (sharāb) was a mirage (sarāb). God Most High said: And there will appear to them from God that which they had never reckoned [39:47].
When they stand up to pray...: The sign of hypocrisy is the finding of energy when being witnessed by others and the slackening of resolve when the opportunity to be seen passes.
Wavering, all the time...: Those who are worth the least among created beings are those who remove the bodice of servanthood (ʿubūdiyya) and have not found a way to true freedom (ḥurriya). They do not have the slightest bit of precious nobility. Nor do they have an agreeable way of living in their heedlessness.