In the very center of their hearts is a sickness, and God has increased them in sickness. For them is a painful punishment because they habitually lie. (Baqara 2:10)

Some interpreters of the Qur'an interpret "God has increased them in sickness" in relation to the ruling "the punishment is in keeping with the crime." However, it would be more fitting to understand this phrase as follows: God has increased them in sickness not only because their intentions are filled with evil, but also because they put these intentions into action whenever they have the opportunity. This gives rise to a number of causes that drives them to commit such evil and this further multiplies the collateral repercussions, resulting in a vicious cycle. Evil intentions that can not be uprooted from the heart, or worse, if the person does not even intend to get rid of such evil intentions, generate other evil thoughts and deeds; this is how the hypocrite is ruined. Thus, it is more reasonable to interpret the second half of this verse as the natural conclusion of such a vicious cycle.

Good health is our essential nature and natural disposition is free from defects; spiritual illness is secondary or accidental. Those who neglect to take care of the health of their hearts or to impose quarantine conditions will find that this divine faculty has been infected by virus. There are diverse paths that open from one error to another, from one wrongdoing to a more grievous sin, which may even lead to unbelief, the greatest sin of all. A small diversion in the center may end up at an unimaginably wide angle on the periphery.

If the illness of the hypocrite is a diversion from the main tenets or a doubt in faith, this is potential unbelief or denial; if the chains that extend from sin to unbelief are not broken with divine help then such a sin is likely to end up in denial. Sometimes, such persons, who are doubtful about everything between God and their souls, perceive everyone and everything as if they are suffering in the claws of the same illness, aggravating their inner anguish. This, in turn, burdens them with more layers of doubt and denial, and they writhe in the pain of the tides of their souls; they are choked by the numerous afflictions they have conceived in their imagination, one heaped upon another, for they consider everyone to be as faithless, inconsiderate, and unreliable as themselves.

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