يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَا لَكُمْ إِذَا قِيلَ لَكُمُ انفِرُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ اثَّاقَلْتُمْ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ ۚ أَرَضِيتُم بِالْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا مِنَ الْآخِرَةِ ۚ فَمَا مَتَاعُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا فِي الْآخِرَةِ إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ
O you who have faith! What is the matter with you that when you are told: ‘Go forth in the way of Allah,’ you sink heavily to the ground? Are you pleased with the life of this world instead of the Hereafter? But the wares of the life of this world compared with the Hereafter are but insignificant.
إِلَّا تَنفِرُوا يُعَذِّبْكُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا وَيَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ وَلَا تَضُرُّوهُ شَيْئًا ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
If you do not go forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment, and replace you with another people, and you will not hurt Him in the least, and Allah has power over all things.
إِلَّا تَنصُرُوهُ فَقَدْ نَصَرَهُ اللَّهُ إِذْ أَخْرَجَهُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا ثَانِيَ اثْنَيْنِ إِذْ هُمَا فِي الْغَارِ إِذْ يَقُولُ لِصَاحِبِهِ لَا تَحْزَنْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَنَا ۖ فَأَنزَلَ اللَّهُ سَكِينَتَهُ عَلَيْهِ وَأَيَّدَهُ بِجُنُودٍ لَّمْ تَرَوْهَا وَجَعَلَ كَلِمَةَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا السُّفْلَىٰ ۗ وَكَلِمَةُ اللَّهِ هِيَ الْعُلْيَا ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ
If you do not help him, then Allah certainly helped him when the faithless expelled him, as one of two [refugees], when the two of them were in the cave, he said to his companion, ‘Do not grieve; Allah is indeed with us.’ Then Allah sent down His composure upon him, and strengthened him with hosts you did not see, and He made the word of the faithless the lowest; and the word of Allah is the highest; and Allah is all-mighty, all-wise.
انفِرُوا خِفَافًا وَثِقَالًا وَجَاهِدُوا بِأَمْوَالِكُمْ وَأَنفُسِكُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
Go forth, whether [armed] lightly or heavily, and wage jihad with your possessions and persons in the way of Allah. That is better for you, should you know.
لَوْ كَانَ عَرَضًا قَرِيبًا وَسَفَرًا قَاصِدًا لَّاتَّبَعُوكَ وَلَـٰكِن بَعُدَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الشُّقَّةُ ۚ وَسَيَحْلِفُونَ بِاللَّهِ لَوِ اسْتَطَعْنَا لَخَرَجْنَا مَعَكُمْ يُهْلِكُونَ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَاذِبُونَ
Were it an accessible gain or a short journey, they would have surely followed you; but the distance seemed too far to them. Yet they will swear by Allah: ‘If we could, we would have surely gone forth with you.’ They [merely] destroy themselves. Allah knows that they are indeed liars.
عَفَا اللَّهُ عَنكَ لِمَ أَذِنتَ لَهُمْ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَكَ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا وَتَعْلَمَ الْكَاذِبِينَ
May Allah excuse you! Why did you grant them leave [to stay behind] before those who told the truth were evident to you and you had ascertained the liars?
لَا يَسْتَأْذِنُكَ الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ أَن يُجَاهِدُوا بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنفُسِهِمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالْمُتَّقِينَ
Those who believe in Allah and the Last Day do not ask you for leave [exempting them] from waging jihad with their possessions and their persons, and Allah knows best the Godwary.
إِنَّمَا يَسْتَأْذِنُكَ الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَارْتَابَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ فَهُمْ فِي رَيْبِهِمْ يَتَرَدَّدُونَ
Only those seek a leave [of exemption] from you who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, and whose hearts are in doubt, so they waver in their doubt.
وَلَوْ أَرَادُوا الْخُرُوجَ لَأَعَدُّوا لَهُ عُدَّةً وَلَـٰكِن كَرِهَ اللَّهُ انبِعَاثَهُمْ فَثَبَّطَهُمْ وَقِيلَ اقْعُدُوا مَعَ الْقَاعِدِينَ
Had they desired to go forth, they would have surely made some preparations for it; but Allah was averse to arouse them, so He held them back, and it was said [to them], ‘Be seated with those who sit back.’
لَوْ خَرَجُوا فِيكُم مَّا زَادُوكُمْ إِلَّا خَبَالًا وَلَأَوْضَعُوا خِلَالَكُمْ يَبْغُونَكُمُ الْفِتْنَةَ وَفِيكُمْ سَمَّاعُونَ لَهُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالظَّالِمِينَ
Had they gone forth with you, they would have only added to your troubles, and they would have surely spread rumours in your midst, seeking to cause sedition among you. They have some spies among you, and Allah knows best the wrongdoers.
لَقَدِ ابْتَغَوُا الْفِتْنَةَ مِن قَبْلُ وَقَلَّبُوا لَكَ الْأُمُورَ حَتَّىٰ جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَظَهَرَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ وَهُمْ كَارِهُونَ
They certainly sought to cause sedition earlier, and upset the matters for you, until the truth came and Allah’s command prevailed, much as they were averse.
وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَقُولُ ائْذَن لِّي وَلَا تَفْتِنِّي ۚ أَلَا فِي الْفِتْنَةِ سَقَطُوا ۗ وَإِنَّ جَهَنَّمَ لَمُحِيطَةٌ بِالْكَافِرِينَ
Among them there are some who say, ‘Give me leave, and do not put me to temptation.’ Look! They have already fallen into temptation and indeed hell besieges the faithless.
إِن تُصِبْكَ حَسَنَةٌ تَسُؤْهُمْ ۖ وَإِن تُصِبْكَ مُصِيبَةٌ يَقُولُوا قَدْ أَخَذْنَا أَمْرَنَا مِن قَبْلُ وَيَتَوَلَّوا وَّهُمْ فَرِحُونَ
If some good should befall you, it upsets them; but if an adversity befalls you, they say, ‘We had already taken our precautions in advance,’ and they go away boasting.
قُل لَّن يُصِيبَنَا إِلَّا مَا كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَنَا هُوَ مَوْلَانَا ۚ وَعَلَى اللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
Say, ‘Nothing will befall us except what Allah has ordained for us. He is our master, and in Allah let all the faithful put their trust.’
قُلْ هَلْ تَرَبَّصُونَ بِنَا إِلَّا إِحْدَى الْحُسْنَيَيْنِ ۖ وَنَحْنُ نَتَرَبَّصُ بِكُمْ أَن يُصِيبَكُمُ اللَّهُ بِعَذَابٍ مِّنْ عِندِهِ أَوْ بِأَيْدِينَا ۖ فَتَرَبَّصُوا إِنَّا مَعَكُم مُّتَرَبِّصُونَ
Say, ‘Do you not await one of the two excellent things to happen to us? But we await that Allah shall visit on you a punishment, from Him, or by our hands. So wait! We too are waiting along with you.’
قُلْ أَنفِقُوا طَوْعًا أَوْ كَرْهًا لَّن يُتَقَبَّلَ مِنكُمْ ۖ إِنَّكُمْ كُنتُمْ قَوْمًا فَاسِقِينَ
Say, ‘Spend willingly or unwillingly, it shall never be accepted from you; for you are indeed a transgressing lot.’
وَمَا مَنَعَهُمْ أَن تُقْبَلَ مِنْهُمْ نَفَقَاتُهُمْ إِلَّا أَنَّهُمْ كَفَرُوا بِاللَّهِ وَبِرَسُولِهِ وَلَا يَأْتُونَ الصَّلَاةَ إِلَّا وَهُمْ كُسَالَىٰ وَلَا يُنفِقُونَ إِلَّا وَهُمْ كَارِهُونَ
Nothing stops their charities from being accepted except that they have no faith in Allah and His Apostle and do not perform the prayer but lazily, and do not spend but reluctantly.
فَلَا تُعْجِبْكَ أَمْوَالُهُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُهُمْ ۚ إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُعَذِّبَهُم بِهَا فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَتَزْهَقَ أَنفُسُهُمْ وَهُمْ كَافِرُونَ
So let not their wealth and children impress you: Allah only desires to punish them with these in the life of this world, and that their souls may depart while they are faithless.
وَيَحْلِفُونَ بِاللَّهِ إِنَّهُمْ لَمِنكُمْ وَمَا هُم مِّنكُمْ وَلَـٰكِنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ يَفْرَقُونَ
They swear by Allah that they belong to you, but they do not belong to you. Rather, they are a frightened lot.
لَوْ يَجِدُونَ مَلْجَأً أَوْ مَغَارَاتٍ أَوْ مُدَّخَلًا لَّوَلَّوْا إِلَيْهِ وَهُمْ يَجْمَحُونَ
If they could find a refuge, or a hideout, or a hole [to creep into], they would turn to it in frantic haste.
وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَلْمِزُكَ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ فَإِنْ أُعْطُوا مِنْهَا رَضُوا وَإِن لَّمْ يُعْطَوْا مِنْهَا إِذَا هُمْ يَسْخَطُونَ
There are some of them who blame you regarding [the distribution of] the charities: if they are given from them, they are pleased, but if they are not given from them, behold, they are displeased.
وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ رَضُوا مَا آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَقَالُوا حَسْبُنَا اللَّهُ سَيُؤْتِينَا اللَّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِ وَرَسُولُهُ إِنَّا إِلَى اللَّهِ رَاغِبُونَ
[It would have been better] if they had been pleased with what Allah and His Apostle gave them, and had said, ‘Allah is sufficient for us; Allah and His Apostle will give to us out of His grace. Indeed to Allah do we eagerly turn.’
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Sources present (all six non-silent): Ṭabarsī, Majmaʿ al-Bayān; Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān; Baḥrānī, al-Burhān; al-Qummī, Tafsīr al-Qummī; Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān; An Enlightening Commentary. The five Arabic sources were fetched and translated here from their verified Arabic; the Enlightening Commentary is reproduced from its published English. Apparatus is condensed with disclosure; full Arabic is preserved in each original_ar.
What the passage says. It opens the Tabuk discourse: a reproach to the believers who "cling heavily to the earth" when called to march, with the threat of replacement (38–39); the recollection of the Cave, when God helped His Messenger though "the second of two" (40); the command to march "light and heavy" and strive with wealth and life (41–42); a gentle reproach to the Prophet for excusing the laggards, who would only have sown discord (43–48); the temptation (fitna) of those who beg leave, and the believers' awaiting "one of the two best things" (49–52); the rejection of the hypocrites' spending, their wealth a punishment, their lazy prayer (53–55); their false oaths and longing for any refuge (56–57); and the slander of those who eye the alms (58–59).
The Tabuk summons. Ṭabarsī, Qummī, and Baḥrānī set the scene (web-confirmed: 9 AH, the "Campaign of Hardship," the rumor — which historians doubt — of Heraclius massing the Byzantines with the Ghassānids; the heat, the harvest, the distance). Qummī and Baḥrānī preserve the Prophet's long Tabuk sermon and the excuse of al-Jadd b. Qays (fearing temptation by the Byzantine women), the occasion of v. 49. On "march forth light and heavy" (41) all read young and old, rich and poor; al-Mīzān takes it as a figure for going forth "in whatever state, taking nothing as an excuse." On the laggards' oath (42), the Imāmī narrations (Baḥrānī, ← al-Ṣādiq) and Ṭūsī agree they were able to go — a proof, Ṭūsī adds, that "capacity precedes the act."
The Cave (v. 40) — a touchstone of divergence. Here the four Shia sources part ways on a verse long debated between Sunnīs and Shīʿīs (web-confirmed as a live question). Qummī and Baḥrānī transmit pointedly partisan narrations: the companion trembling while the Prophet showed him the Anṣār and Jaʿfar's ship, then "secretly thinking him a sorcerer"; ʿAlī asleep on the Prophet's bed; and the reading "God sent down His sakīna upon His Messenger." Ṭabarsī, by contrast, gives the standard account (the Cave of Thawr, the doves and the spider's web, Surāqa) and expressly declines the Shia polemic, "lest anyone ascribe partisanship to us." Ṭūsī engages it as measured kalām: the verse yields no proof of Abū Bakr's superiority (ṣāḥib implies no merit, "do not grieve" is no praise), "yet we did not say this to disparage him." al-Mīzān reaches the Shia conclusion by pure exegesis: the sakīna and the unseen hosts descend on the Prophet — every pronoun returns to him, and the verse's whole thrust is God's special help to him "when none could help him" — so referring them to Abū Bakr would shatter the verse's unity. The Sunnī reading (the reassurance shared, "do not grieve — God is with us") is the foil throughout.
The Prophet's ʿiṣma (v. 43). "God pardon you! Why did you give them leave?" raises the question of the Prophet's infallibility. Baḥrānī preserves al-Riḍā's classic answer to al-Maʾmūn — it is of the kind "I mean you, but I address the neighbor," aimed at the community. al-Mīzān deepens this: the rebuke is rhetorical (the following verses show it was in fact better to excuse them), and "dhanb" linguistically means any act entailing a loss (here, the lost benefit of exposing the liars), not a sin — so the Prophet's ʿiṣma and the Qurʾan's wording are reconciled, against both those who impute a real sin and those (al-Rāzī) who reduce it to "less-than-optimal."
The hypocrites and the alms. Across the sources the hypocrites' spending is barred from acceptance by their unbelief (Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī note this proves the disbelievers are addressed by the religious obligations); "one of the two best things" (52) is victory or martyrdom; and the slander over the alms (58–59) is occasioned (Qummī, Ṭabarsī) by the rich, who expected a share and reviled the Prophet when the alms went to the poor. Qummī alone weaves in the moving account of Abū Dharr's lonely death at al-Rabadha and the three who stayed behind — Kaʿb b. Mālik, Murāra, and Hilāl — later forgiven (9:118; web-confirmed), the fruit of their truthfulness.