ansars, hypocrites...

Why do you think "hypocrite" would have a different meaning in this context than its usual meaning?

"Ansar," on the other hand, genuinely is a special term. Wikipedia explains.

The Munafiqs which are translated as Hypocrites are people who projected belief on the outside and disbelief in the inside. It still carries the same meaning in Islamic usage.

The Ansars are mainly the people of Medina who took the immigrants of Mecca in and therefore contributed to the establishment of the first Muslim state.

Hussein

My understanding is that Ansars were the first Muslims in Medina.
A hypocrite is a hypocrite, whatever time and place. Not sure it had a special meaning then. If you are asking who the Koran is refering to, then this is clearly not the right forum to be posting this question.

If you are asking who the Koran is refering to, then this is clearly not the right forum to be posting this question.

Sure it is. Meanings of words is one of things we do here.

I'd agree. We're not anti-semantic here!

i guess my question is something like this: when reading a text about the times of mohammed does this term refer to a certain limited group of people, defined by other traits than their hypocrisy, or can it be any person who is a hypocrite (and of whom we may not know that they are hypocrites since outwardly they share all the signs of other muslims...) ?

The word existed before the times of Muhammad, and presumably could be used of any hypocrite, not just in the context of religious hypocrisy. In terms of the times of Muhammad, before the hijra there would have been little reason for anyone to pretend to accept Islam without meaning it. It was only after Muhammad gained a certain amount of political power in Madinah that hypocrisy became an issue.

The muhajjirs, those who came from Makkah with Muhammad, could pretty much be assumed to be sincere since they would just have stayed in Makkah otherwise. So the people characterized as munafiqun, hypocrites, are pretty much all Madinans, pretending to accept Islam because eventually it became difficult not to (some of those in open opposition were murdered), but not believing and in some cases working against it.

Generally, it is used for any person who is a hypocrite and that one may not know about because he or she is outwardly Muslim. The aim of the passages of the Qur'an generally is to talk to the hearts of those people and to reassure the other Muslims that such people cannot do harm.

hussein

Maybe I'm a bit slow here, but why is hypocrite pronounced "hippo-crit", and not "hype-o-crit", especailly when all other words in English beginning with hypo-, such as hypochondriac, are pronounce with the "hype-o" pronunciation?

Isn't it all a bit hypocritical?

And think of all those non-native English speakers that are going around the world saying "hype-o-crit"!