Allah said that if the hypocrites are told,

ءَامِنُواْ كَمَآ ءَامَنَ النَّاسُ

("Believe as the people believe,"), meaning, `Believe just as the believers believe in Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers, Resurrection after death, Paradise and Hellfire, etc. And obey Allah and His Messenger by heeding the commandments and avoiding the prohibitions.' Yet the hypocrites answer by saying,

This verse also places before the hypocrites a criterion of true faith (Iman ایمان) آمِنُوا كَمَا آمَنَ النَّاسُ :"Believe as people have believed". According to the consensus of commentators, the Arabic word Na-s النَّاسُ : (people) in this verse refers to the blessed Companions of the Holy Prophet ﷺ because it is just these 'people' who had embraced the Faith and had accepted the Holy Qur'an as the word of Allah while it was being revealed. So, the verse indicates that the only kind of Iman ایمان (faith) acceptable to Allah is the one which should be similar to that of the blessed Companions, and that the Iman ایمان of others would be worthy of the name only when they believe in the same things in the same way as the Companions did. In other words, the Iman ایمان of the Companions is a touchstone for testing the Iman ایمان of all the other Muslims; any belief. or deed which departs from their faith and practice, however pleasing in its looks or good in its intention, is not valid according to the Shari` ah. There is a consensus of commentators on this position. One should also notice that the hypocrites used to call the blessed Companions 'fools' (Sufaha-' السُّفَهَاء). This has always been the way of those who go astray - anyone who tries to show them the right path is, in their eyes, ignorant and stupid. But who could, the Holy Qur'an points out, be more stupid than the man who refuses to see clear signs?

In the seventh verse, we see the double-facedness and trickery of the hypocrites. In the company of the Muslims, they would vociferously declare their faith in Islam; but, going back to their own people, would reassure them that they had never left the way of their ancestors, and had been meeting the Muslims only to make fun of them.