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77
أَلَم تَرَ إِلَى الَّذينَ قيلَ لَهُم كُفّوا أَيدِيَكُم وَأَقيمُوا الصَّلاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكاةَ فَلَمّا كُتِبَ عَلَيهِمُ القِتالُ إِذا فَريقٌ مِنهُم يَخشَونَ النّاسَ كَخَشيَةِ اللَّهِ أَو أَشَدَّ خَشيَةً ۚ وَقالوا رَبَّنا لِمَ كَتَبتَ عَلَينَا القِتالَ لَولا أَخَّرتَنا إِلىٰ أَجَلٍ قَريبٍ ۗ قُل مَتاعُ الدُّنيا قَليلٌ وَالآخِرَةُ خَيرٌ لِمَنِ اتَّقىٰ وَلا تُظلَمونَ فَتيلًا

Yusuf Ali

Hast thou not turned Thy vision to those who were told to hold back1 their hands (from fight) but establish regular prayers and spend in regular charity? When (at length) the order for fighting was issued to them, behold! a section of them feared men as - or even more than - they should have feared God. They said: “Our Lord! Why hast Thou ordered us to fight? Wouldst Thou not Grant us respite to our (natural) term,2 near (enough)?” Say: “Short is the enjoyment of this world: the Hereafter is the best for those who do right: Never will ye be dealt with unjustly in the very least!
  • Before the command for fighting was issued there were some who were impatient, and could scarcely be held back. They wanted fighting from human motives-pugnacity, the love of plunder, hatred against their enemies, the gaining of personal ends. Fighting from such motives is wrong at all times. When the testing time came, and they had to fight, not for their own land, but for a Sacred Cause, in which there was much suffering and little personal gain, the hypocrites held back and were afraid.
  • “Our natural term of life,” they would say, “is short enough: why should we jeopardize it by fighting in which there is no personal gain?” The answer is begun in this verse and continued in the next.
    Briefly, the answer is: (1) in any case the pleasures of this world are short: this life is fleeting; the first thing for a righteous man to do is to emancipate himself from its obsessions; (2) to do your duty is to do right; therefore turn your attention mainly to duty; (3) when duty calls for self-sacrifice, be sure that God’s call is never unjust, and never such as to exceed your capacity; and (4) if you fear death, you will not by fear escape death; it will find you out wherever you are; why not face it boldly when duty calls?