[3:71] O People of the Scripture! Why do you confound truth with falsehood, and conceal the truth while you know?
They conceal the truth regarding the affair of Muhammad (ṣ) even as they know that he is the true prophet. Can this be anything other than the divine judgment of forsakenness and the decree of exclusion? Then He informed them that among them are those who were hypocritical regarding their situation. They wanted to defend themselves from the annoyance of the Muslims and to avoid conflict with their brothers among the disbelievers, so they publicly assumed an attitude of agreement with the Messenger (ṣ) and the Muslims, while secretly remaining true to their corrupt beliefs amongst themselves.