2/42 — Two distinct offences
Root l-b-s: to wear, to clothe. From the same root comes libās (garment) — the famous comparison the Qurʾān uses for spouses is in this word too (al-Baqara 2/187).
When the verse says "do not mix", the word it uses says "do not dress falsehood in the garment of truth". This is something different from concealing, and more dangerous:
| What it does | Its result | |
|---|---|---|
| Concealing (katm) | Makes the true invisible | The person is left without knowledge — but he knows he does not know |
| Dressing (talbīs) | Gives falsehood the dress of truth | The person knows wrongly — and supposes he knows rightly |
The second is heavier, because it leaves no gap. A person without knowledge may search; a person wrongly informed does not.
Its method is familiar too: no lying is required. To give correct information incompletely, to put a true sentence in a false context, to use a genuine piece of evidence for a conclusion it does not support — all of these fall under this description. The material is truth; the structure built is falsehood.
وَأَنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ — "and that while you know". This clause sets the definition of unbelief we established in the sixth verse of the sūra to work here as well: the issue is not ignorance but what is done with what is known.