The Quran

يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ آمَنوا ما لَكُم إِذا قيلَ لَكُمُ انفِروا في سَبيلِ اللَّهِ اثّاقَلتُم إِلَى الأَرضِ ۚ أَرَضيتُم بِالحَياةِ الدُّنيا مِنَ الآخِرَةِ ۚ فَما مَتاعُ الحَياةِ الدُّنيا فِي الآخِرَةِ إِلّا قَليلٌ

Muhammad Asad

O YOU who have attained to faith! What is amiss with you that, when you are called upon, "Go forth to war in God's cause," you cling heavily to the earth?¹ Would you content yourselves with [the comforts of] this worldly life in preference to [the good of] the life to come? But the enjoyment of life in this world is but a paltry thing when compared with the life to come!

I.e., "you are sluggish in your response, clinging to the life of this world". This verse - as well as most of this surah from here onward - alludes to the campaign of Tabuk, in the year 9 H. The immediate reason for this expedition was the information which the Prophet received to the effect that the Byzantines, made apprehensive by the rapid growth of Islam in Arabia and incited by the Prophet's enemy Abu 'Amir (see note 142 on verse 107 of this surah), were assembling large forces on the confines of the Peninsula with a view to marching against Medina and overthrowing the Muslims. To guard against such an assault, the Prophet assembled the strongest force the Muslims were capable of, and set out in the month of Rajab, 9 H., towards the frontier. On reaching Tabuk, about half-way between Medina and Damascus, the Prophet ascertained that the Byzantines were either not yet ready to invade Arabia or had entirely given up the idea for the time being; and so - in accordance with the Islamic principle that war may be waged only in self-defence - he returned with his followers to Medina without engaging in hostilities. At the time of the preparation for this expedition, the hypocrites and a minority among the believers displayed an extreme reluctance (referred to in this and the following verses) to embark on a war with Byzantium: and it is this minority that the above verse reproaches for "clinging heavily to the earth" (Manor X, 493).