View source for Allah, the Best Deceiver (Qur'an 3:54)

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The [[Qur'an]] openly states many times that [[Allah]] is the best of ''l-mākirīna'', a word sometimes mildly translated as ''planners'', though also as ''schemers'' or ''plotters''. The Arabic word used here is "ماكر" "maakir", coming from the root m-k-r م-ك-ر, with the word ''Makr'' "مكر" primarily meaning to practice deceit or guile or circumvention.<ref>Makr - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume7/00000256.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 2728]</ref> Due to this definition, some critics consider it a highly inappropriate term for the Quran to describe Allah, particularly as the Quran elsewhere tells believers to shun lying speech ({{Quran|22|30}}), to not testify to falsehood ({{Quran|25|72}}), and describes them as the truthful ({{Quran|3|17}}). Similar exhortations to truthfulness are found in hadiths, with exceptions in the case of warfare, to facilitate the murder of one of Muhammad's enemies, or to bring reconciliation between parties (on a related note, one Quranic concept is commonly misrepresented in online critical discourse as if it were a general permission to lie about the faith, which is not the case, as explained in the article [[taqiyya]]).