Yunadoonahum alam nakun maAAakum qaloo bala walakinnakum fatantum anfusakum watarabbastum wartabtum wagharratkumu (surah Hadid: 14)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(57:14) The hypocrites will call out to the believers: 'Were we not with you?' *20 The believers will reply: 'Yes; but you allowed yourselves to succumb to temptations, *21 and you wavered *22 and you remained in doubt *23 and false expectations deluded you until Allah's command came to pass, *24 and the Deluder *25 deluded you concerning Allah.

Yunaadoonahum alam nakum ma`akum qaaloo balaa wa laakinnakum fatantum anfusakum wa tarabbastum wartabtum wa gharratkumul amaaniyyu hatta jaaa`a amrul laahi wa gharrakum billaahil gharoor

*20) That is, "Did we not live with you together in the same Muslim society? Did we not affirm the Faith? Did we not offer the Prayers along with you and observe the Fast and perform the Hajj and pay the Zakat? Did we not sit with you in your assemblies and were we not bound in marriage ties and kinship with you? Then, how is it that we have been separated from you today?"
*21) That is In spite of yew claim to be Muslims, you never believed like true and ,sincere Muslims and remained suspended between belief and unbelief. You still had your interests attached to disbelief and the disbelievers and you never gave yourselves up wholly to Islam."
*22) Tarabbus (from which tarabbastum of the Text is derived) means to wait and tarry for an opportunity. When a person is unable to decide which of the two alternative ways he should choose but stands and waits to consider which way should be more favorable for him to follow, he is involved in tarabbus. The hypocrites, had adopted the same attitude during the critical time of the conflict between Islam and un-Islam. Neither were they siding with disbelief openly nor were spending their energy to support and help Islam with full conviction. They were sitting on the fence, waiting to set which party in the conflict became dominant, so that if it was Islam they may join it on the basis of their affimlation of the faith, and if it was unbelief they may side -with its supporters taking advantage of their neutral position in the conflict.
*23) This implies different kinds of doubts that a hypocrite suffers from, and the same also are the actual causes of his hypocrisy. He doubts the existence of God, the Prophethood of the Prophet, the Qur'an's being Allah's book, the Hereafter, its accountability, and its rewards and punishments, and he doubts whether the conflict between the Truth and falsehood is real, or a mere delusion; as for himself he considers the only truth to be that one should enjoy lift and its pleasures to the full, For unless a person is involved in such doubts he can never be a hypocrite.
*24) This can have two meanings: (1) "Until death came to him, you could not shed this delusion till the last moment"; and (2) "that Islam became dominant, while you looked on unconcerned."
*25) That is, Satan.