The Quran

Preface

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

Yusuf Ali

O ye who believe! what is the matter with you,¹ that, when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of God, ye cling heavily to the earth?² Do ye prefer the life of this world to the Hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the Hereafter.

The immediate reference is to the expedition to Tabuk (A.H. 9), for which see the Introduction to this Sūra. But the lesson is perfectly general. When a call is made on behalf of a great cause, the fortunate ones are those who have the privilege of responding to the call. The unfortunate ones are those who are so engrossed in their parochial affairs that they turn a deaf ear to the appeal. They are suffering from a spiritual disease.
(Cf. 13:26). The choice is between two courses: will you choose a noble adventure and the glorious privilege of following your spiritual leader, or grovel in the earth for some small worldly gain or for fear of worldly loss? The people who hesitated to follow the call of TabTik were deterred by (1) the heat of the summer, in which the expedition was undertaken on account of the threat to the existence of the little community, and (2) the fear of losing the fruit harvest, which was ripe for gathering.