The Quran

Preface

سَيَقولُ لَكَ المُخَلَّفونَ مِنَ الأَعرابِ شَغَلَتنا أَموالُنا وَأَهلونا فَاستَغفِر لَنا ۚ يَقولونَ بِأَلسِنَتِهِم ما لَيسَ في قُلوبِهِم ۚ قُل فَمَن يَملِكُ لَكُم مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيئًا إِن أَرادَ بِكُم ضَرًّا أَو أَرادَ بِكُم نَفعًا ۚ بَل كانَ اللَّهُ بِما تَعمَلونَ خَبيرًا

Yusuf Ali

The desert Arabs who¹ lagged behind will say to thee: “We were engaged in (looking after) our flocks and herds, and our families: do thou then ask forgiveness for us.² “ They say with their tongues what is not in their hearts. Say: “Who then has any power at all (to intervene) on your behalf with God, if His Will is to give you some loss³ or to give you some profit? But God is well acquainted with all that ye do.

When the Prophet started from Medīna on the Mecca journey which ended in Hudaybiyah, he asked all Muslims to join him in the pious undertaking, and he had a splendid response. But some of the desert tribes hung back and made excuses. Their faith was but lukewarm, and they did not want to share in any trouble which the Meccans might give to the unarmed Muslims on pilgrimage. Their excuse that they were engaged in looking after their flocks and herds and their families was an afterthought, and in any case made after the return of the Prophet and his party with enhanced prestige to Medīna.
They said this with their tongues, but no thought of piety was in their hearts.
Their false excuse was based on a calculation of worldly profit and loss. But what about the spiritual loss in detaching themselves from the Prophet or spiritual profit in joining in the splendidly loyal feelings of service and obedience which were demonstrated at Hudaybiyah? And in any case they need not think that all their real and secret motives were not known to God.