I sin, repent, then sin again — does that make me a hypocrite?

No. The scholars distinguish major hypocrisy (nifāq akbar) — outwardly professing Islam while inwardly disbelieving, which puts a person "in the lowest depths of the Fire" (Quran 4:145) — from minor hypocrisy (nifāq ʿamalī), which is sinful conduct such as the traits in the hadith: "The signs of a hypocrite are three: when he speaks he lies, when he promises he breaks it, and when he is trusted he betrays." Falling into sin and returning to Allah is the condition of ordinary believers, not of hypocrites; Allah praises "those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins" (Quran 3:135). The hypocrite's mark is that he does not care and does not repent. Al-Bukhārī records in his Book of Faith that Ibn Abī Mulaykah said he met thirty Companions, every one of whom feared hypocrisy for himself — and that fear itself is a sign of īmān, not of nifāq. Keep repenting, work on the specific traits mentioned in the hadith, and do not pass a verdict of hypocrisy on yourself.

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