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Sura 4
Aya 77
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

(Muntakhab)

Have you not seen O Muhammad into the disposition of those who were told to put a restraint upon their desire for fighting and observe faithfully the act of worship and give Zakat (alms), for Zakat is but the vehicle of prayer, yet when time was ripe and fighting was enjoined, some of them came to be apprehensive about their involvement in battle for fear of their lives. They feared the enemy –to a degree comparable to the degree of fear due to Allah–Creator of all beings or even a degree higher, and they exclaimed against fighting; they said: "O Allah, our Creator, why enjoin us to fight and implant our Hereafter in the now; if only You would put fighting in respite and grant us a postponement of this obligation to a future date!" Say to them O Muhammad: "The enjoyment experienced here below, no matter how long it lasts, is fleeting and evanescent whereas the Hereafter abounds in the best enjoyments and everlasting bliss for those who entertain the profound reverence dutiful to Allah, and no one is ever wronged not even to the equivalent of a single hair of the dry integument of the smallest seed".