Today's Reflection [ Ayah 8-10, Surah Al-Baqarah]

وَمِنْ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَقُولُ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ وَمَا هُمْ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ (البقرة: 8). 
And among the people are those who say, ‘We have faith in Allah and the Last Day,’ but they have no faith.

يُخَادِعُونَ اللَّهَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَمَا يَخْدَعُونَ إِلاّ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ (البقرة: 9)
They seek to deceive Allah and those who have faith, yet they deceive no one but themselves, but they are not aware.

فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ مَرَضٌ فَزَادَهُمْ اللَّهُ مَرَضًا وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْذِبُونَ (البقرة: 10)

There is a sickness in their hearts; then Allah increased their sickness and there is a painful punishment for them because of the lies they used to tell.

As we have already seen two types of people in the previous ayahs, the believers and the disbelievers. In this ayah Allah mentions about the hypocrites who are amongst us, but we do not know, beware dear brothers and sisters as these people are pleasantly good in front of you and talk behind your back. They say they believe but they do not believe They think they are deceiving Allah and the believers, but they are far away from the reality.

It is very important for us as believers to look within ourselves, do we possess any quality of a hypocrite? Sometimes just to get things done we say yes, but don’t actually mean it, we promise but do not fulfill, we lie just for the temporary pleasure and when we are trusted with something, we do not take it seriously and we betray.

These things need not be big according to you or the person you are doing it to, but these things are disliked by Allah and in the long run can cause you much damage.

Self-analyze every few days as avoiding these things will take you closer to Allah and also remember shaytaan will try his best to indulge you in such things one step at a time.