Translation
These people have tried to create discord before, and they planned against you (prophet and his followers) until the truth became manifest. Thus, God’s command prevailed even though they dislike it. There are people among them who say: “Leave me alone and try me not,” whereas they have already deep in such trials and the evil consequences [hell] have already encompassed the deniers of truth. If fortunes come to you (prophet and his followers), they grieve whereas if a hardship falls on you, they turn away rejoicing and say: “See, how we have taken care of ourselves.” Say to them: “Nothing will fall on us except what God wills. God is our Protector and on Him all believers rely. Do you perhaps wait (hoping bad things for us) whereas only one of two goods can come to us? While we do wait that God will bring about your evil consequences directly from Himself or through our efforts. Therefore, you wait, and we wait patiently as well.”
Say to them: “Whether you support our causes willingly or as a show, it will make no difference, since you have already proven your transgression.” The reason their effort is no longer meaningful is that they disbelieve in God and in His Messenger, their prayer and worship is done without mindfulness and their support, if rendered, is with but reluctance (to save face outwardly).
Their wealth and their children should not cause any envy from you. These are means by which God tries them in this world and enables condition by which they persist in their disbelief and denials till their death. They invoke God to assert that they are with you while they are not; it is because they are afraid. If they had the means or availability of a refuge—a place or a cave, they would have taken advantage of those in a hurry. There are some of them who express unhappiness with your distribution of charity. If they are given some, they are happy and if they receive none, they are full of anger, whereas, if they were content with allocations made by God and His Messenger and said instead: “God is sufficient for us. Perhaps God will give (in future) out of His grace and His prophet as well. It is to God that we express our desires.”
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REFLECTION
The mental state of people who are not mindful of God and His guidance will sway from truth and the demand for action at hand. The discord created by some in preparing and participating for the Tabuk expedition as well as its aftermath calls for deeper reflection to understand the condition of those individuals who found excuses of discomfort, timeliness, and the purpose of the expedition and chose either to sit it out or become party to it were not fully committed.
ACTION
To what extent we exhibit similar tendencies in matters of life, truth, and social justice is also something we need to consider in every generation and in all different situations that life brings us face to face with. The Qur’an gives us live examples as things happened so that we can understand in deep and nuanced ways the underlying dynamics of the human mind and thoughts and take lessons to shape our lives going forward.