Allah, the Best Deceiver (Qur'an 3:54): Difference between revisions

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 apparent exceptions in the case of warfare, assassinations and peacemaking (on a related note, one Quranic concept is commonly misrepresented in online discourse as if it were a general permission to lie about the faith, which is not the case, as explained in the article [[taqiyya]]).