Verse. 1273

٩ - ٱلتَّوْبَة

9 - At-Tawba

يٰۗاَيُّھَا الَّذِيْنَ اٰمَنُوْا مَا لَكُمْ اِذَا قِيْلَ لَكُمُ انْفِرُوْا فِيْ سَبِيْلِ اللہِ اثَّاقَلْتُمْ اِلَى الْاَرْضِ۝۰ۭ اَرَضِيْتُمْ بِالْحَيٰوۃِ الدُّنْيَا مِنَ الْاٰخِرَۃِ۝۰ۚ فَمَا مَتَاعُ الْحَيٰوۃِ الدُّنْيَا فِي الْاٰخِرَۃِ اِلَّا قَلِيْلٌ۝۳۸
Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo ma lakum itha qeela lakumu infiroo fee sabeeli Allahi iththaqaltum ila alardi aradeetum bialhayati alddunya mina alakhirati fama mataAAu alhayati alddunya fee alakhirati illa qaleelun

English

Ahmed Ali

What has happened to you, O believers, that when you are asked to set out in the cause of God your feet begin to drag? Do you find the life of the world so pleasing that you forget the life to come? Yet the profit of the life of this world is but meagre as compared to the life to come.

38

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (o ye who believe!) the address is to the companions of muhammad (pbuh) (what aileth you that when it is said unto you: go forth) with your prophet (in the way of allah) in obedience of allah at the battle of tabuk, (ye are bowed down to the ground with heaviness) you wish to remain bowed down to the ground. (take ye pleasure in the life of the world) i.e. in that which is in the life of this world (rather than in the hereafter? the comfort of the life of the world is but little in the hereafter) and will not last.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : when the prophet (s) summoned men for the tabūk campaign, and they thought it too burdensome, because of the hardship and the extreme heat from which they were suffering, the following was revealed: o you who believe, what is wrong with you that, when it is said to you, ‘go forth in the way of god,’ you sink down heavily (iththāqaltum: the original tā’ [of tathāqaltum] has been assimilated with the thā’, and the conjunctive hamza has been supplied), in other words, you hesitate and are disinclined to [participate in] the struggle, to the ground, to stay sitting upon it? (the interrogative is meant as a rebuke). are you so content with the life of this world, and its delights, rather than with the hereafter?, that is, in place of its bliss? yet the enjoyment of the life of this world is, in, comparison with the enjoyment of, the hereafter but little, trivial.

Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi

تفسير : (o ye who believe! what aileth you that when it is said unto you: go forth in the way of allah…) [9:38]. this verse was revealed to prompt the believers to take part in the battle of tabuk. when the messenger of allah, allah bless him and give him peace, returned from al-ta'if and the battle of hunayn, he gave orders to attack the byzantines. this happened at a time when people were living in straitened circumstances, the land was suffering from drought; it was very hot and it was time to reap the dates which were by then ripe. people found it very hard to conquer the byzantines; they preferred to stay at home and enjoy the shade. the idea of going out to fight was very hard to accept. when allah knew people's slackness, he revealed this verse.