فَرِحَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ بِمَقْعَدِهِمْ خِلَافَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ وَكَرِهُوا أَن يُجَاهِدُوا بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنفُسِهِمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَقَالُوا لَا تَنفِرُوا فِي الْحَرِّ ۗ قُلْ نَارُ جَهَنَّمَ أَشَدُّ حَرًّا ۚ لَّوْ كَانُوا يَفْقَهُونَ
Those who were left behind boasted for sitting back against [the command of] the Apostle of Allah, and were reluctant to wage jihad with their possessions and persons in the way of Allah, and they said, ‘Do not go forth in this heat.’ Say, The fire of hell is severer in heat, should they understand.
فَلْيَضْحَكُوا قَلِيلًا وَلْيَبْكُوا كَثِيرًا جَزَاءً بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ
So let them laugh a little; much will they weep as a requital for what they used to earn.
فَإِن رَّجَعَكَ اللَّهُ إِلَىٰ طَائِفَةٍ مِّنْهُمْ فَاسْتَأْذَنُوكَ لِلْخُرُوجِ فَقُل لَّن تَخْرُجُوا مَعِيَ أَبَدًا وَلَن تُقَاتِلُوا مَعِيَ عَدُوًّا ۖ إِنَّكُمْ رَضِيتُم بِالْقُعُودِ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ فَاقْعُدُوا مَعَ الْخَالِفِينَ
If Allah brings you back [from the battlefront] to a group of them and they seek your permission to go forth, say, ‘You shall never go forth with me, and you shall not fight with me against any enemy. You were indeed pleased to sit back the first time, so sit back with those who stay behind.’
وَلَا تُصَلِّ عَلَىٰ أَحَدٍ مِّنْهُم مَّاتَ أَبَدًا وَلَا تَقُمْ عَلَىٰ قَبْرِهِ ۖ إِنَّهُمْ كَفَرُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَمَاتُوا وَهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ
And never pray over any of them when he dies, nor stand at his graveside. They indeed defied Allah and His Apostle and died as transgressors.
وَلَا تُعْجِبْكَ أَمْوَالُهُمْ وَأَوْلَادُهُمْ ۚ إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَن يُعَذِّبَهُم بِهَا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَتَزْهَقَ أَنفُسُهُمْ وَهُمْ كَافِرُونَ
Let not their possessions or their children impress you. Allah only desires to punish them with these in this world, and that their souls may depart while they are faithless.
وَإِذَا أُنزِلَتْ سُورَةٌ أَنْ آمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَجَاهِدُوا مَعَ رَسُولِهِ اسْتَأْذَنَكَ أُولُو الطَّوْلِ مِنْهُمْ وَقَالُوا ذَرْنَا نَكُن مَّعَ الْقَاعِدِينَ
When a surah is sent down [declaring]: ‘Have faith in Allah, and wage jihad along with His Apostle, the affluent among them ask you for leave, and say, ‘Let us remain with those who sit back.’
رَضُوا بِأَن يَكُونُوا مَعَ الْخَوَالِفِ وَطُبِعَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ فَهُمْ لَا يَفْقَهُونَ
They are pleased to be with those who stay back, and their hearts have been sealed. So they do not understand.
لَـٰكِنِ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ جَاهَدُوا بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنفُسِهِمْ ۚ وَأُولَـٰئِكَ لَهُمُ الْخَيْرَاتُ ۖ وَأُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ
But the Apostle and the faithful who are with him wage jihad with their possessions and persons, and to such belong all the blessings, and it is they who are the felicitous.
أَعَدَّ اللَّهُ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا ۚ ذَٰلِكَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ
Allah has prepared for them gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them [forever]. That is the great success.
وَجَاءَ الْمُعَذِّرُونَ مِنَ الْأَعْرَابِ لِيُؤْذَنَ لَهُمْ وَقَعَدَ الَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ ۚ سَيُصِيبُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
Some of the Bedouins who sought to be excused came, so that they may be granted leave [to stay back]; while those who lied to Allah and His Apostle sat back. Soon there shall visit the faithless among them a painful punishment.
لَّيْسَ عَلَى الضُّعَفَاءِ وَلَا عَلَى الْمَرْضَىٰ وَلَا عَلَى الَّذِينَ لَا يَجِدُونَ مَا يُنفِقُونَ حَرَجٌ إِذَا نَصَحُوا لِلَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ۚ مَا عَلَى الْمُحْسِنِينَ مِن سَبِيلٍ ۚ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
There is no blame on the weak, nor on the sick, nor on those who do not find anything to spend, so long as they are sincere to Allah and His Apostle. There is no [cause for] blaming the virtuous, and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.
وَلَا عَلَى الَّذِينَ إِذَا مَا أَتَوْكَ لِتَحْمِلَهُمْ قُلْتَ لَا أَجِدُ مَا أَحْمِلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ تَوَلَّوا وَّأَعْيُنُهُمْ تَفِيضُ مِنَ الدَّمْعِ حَزَنًا أَلَّا يَجِدُوا مَا يُنفِقُونَ
Nor [is there any blame] on those to whom, when they came to you to provide them with a mount, you said, ‘I do not find any mount for you,’ and they turned back, their eyes flowing with tears, grieved because they did not find any means to spend.
إِنَّمَا السَّبِيلُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ يَسْتَأْذِنُونَكَ وَهُمْ أَغْنِيَاءُ ۚ رَضُوا بِأَن يَكُونُوا مَعَ الْخَوَالِفِ وَطَبَعَ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ فَهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
The blame lies only on those who ask leave of you [to stay behind] though they are well-off. They are pleased to be with those who stay back; Allah has set a seal on their hearts, so they do not know [the outcome of their conduct].
يَعْتَذِرُونَ إِلَيْكُمْ إِذَا رَجَعْتُمْ إِلَيْهِمْ ۚ قُل لَّا تَعْتَذِرُوا لَن نُّؤْمِنَ لَكُمْ قَدْ نَبَّأَنَا اللَّهُ مِنْ أَخْبَارِكُمْ ۚ وَسَيَرَى اللَّهُ عَمَلَكُمْ وَرَسُولُهُ ثُمَّ تُرَدُّونَ إِلَىٰ عَالِمِ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ فَيُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ
They will offer you excuses when you return to them. Say, ‘Do not make excuses; we will never believe you. Allah has informed us of your state of affairs. Allah and His Apostle will observe your conduct, then you will be returned to the Knower of the sensible and the Unseen, and He will inform you concerning what you used to do.’
سَيَحْلِفُونَ بِاللَّهِ لَكُمْ إِذَا انقَلَبْتُمْ إِلَيْهِمْ لِتُعْرِضُوا عَنْهُمْ ۖ فَأَعْرِضُوا عَنْهُمْ ۖ إِنَّهُمْ رِجْسٌ ۖ وَمَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ جَزَاءً بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ
They will swear to you by Allah when you return to them, that you may leave them alone. So leave them alone. They are indeed filth, and their refuge shall be hell, a requital for what they used to earn.
يَحْلِفُونَ لَكُمْ لِتَرْضَوْا عَنْهُمْ ۖ فَإِن تَرْضَوْا عَنْهُمْ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَرْضَىٰ عَنِ الْقَوْمِ الْفَاسِقِينَ
They swear to you that you may be reconciled to them. But even if you are reconciled to them, Allah shall not be reconciled to the transgressing lot.
الْأَعْرَابُ أَشَدُّ كُفْرًا وَنِفَاقًا وَأَجْدَرُ أَلَّا يَعْلَمُوا حُدُودَ مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ رَسُولِهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ
The Bedouins are more obdurate in unfaith and hypocrisy, and more apt to be ignorant of the precepts that Allah has sent down to His Apostle, and Allah is all-knowing, all-wise.
وَمِنَ الْأَعْرَابِ مَن يَتَّخِذُ مَا يُنفِقُ مَغْرَمًا وَيَتَرَبَّصُ بِكُمُ الدَّوَائِرَ ۚ عَلَيْهِمْ دَائِرَةُ السَّوْءِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
Among the Bedouins are those who regard what they spend as a loss, and they watch for a reversal of your fortunes. Theirs shall be an adverse turn of fortune, and Allah is all-hearing, all-knowing.
وَمِنَ الْأَعْرَابِ مَن يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَيَتَّخِذُ مَا يُنفِقُ قُرُبَاتٍ عِندَ اللَّهِ وَصَلَوَاتِ الرَّسُولِ ۚ أَلَا إِنَّهَا قُرْبَةٌ لَّهُمْ ۚ سَيُدْخِلُهُمُ اللَّهُ فِي رَحْمَتِهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
Yet among the Bedouins are [also] those who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and regard what they spend as [a means of attaining] nearness to Allah and the blessings of the Apostle. Now, it shall indeed bring them nearness, and Allah will admit them into His mercy. Indeed Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.
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 continues against the Tabuk laggards: they rejoiced at sitting behind, said "do not march in the heat," and shall "laugh little and weep much" (81–83); the Prophet is forbidden to pray over any of them who dies or stand at his grave (84); their wealth and children are no cause for wonder (85); the men of means ask leave while "the Messenger and those who believe with him" strive (86–89); the excuse-making Bedouins came, and the liars sat (90); but there is no blame on the weak, the sick, the penniless, and the weepers who found nothing to ride (91–93); the hypocrites' excuses and oaths on the believers' return are rejected — "turn from them, they are an abomination" (94–96); and the Bedouins are weighed, the worst against the believing best (97–99).
The Tabuk departure and the Manzila ḥadīth. Qummī and Baḥrānī attach to v. 81 the account of the Prophet's leaving ʿAlī in charge of Medina, the hypocrites' rumor that he did so "in ill omen," and ʿAlī's overtaking him — answered with "Are you not content to be to me as Aaron was to Moses, except that there is no prophet after me?" This Ḥadīth al-Manzila is web-confirmed as canonical in both the Sunnī (Bukhārī, Muslim, Tirmidhī, Ibn Māja) and Shīʿī collections — a point of cross-tradition agreement, unlike the contested Cave narration of passage 3; the appended titles (waṣī, khalīfa) belong to the Imāmī recension and are so noted.
No prayer over the hypocrites (v. 84). Ṭabarsī gives the occasion of ʿAbd Allāh b. Ubayy — the Prophet's giving his shirt and rising to pray before the prohibition, Gabriel staying him, and his hope that many would thereby enter Islam — web-confirmed (Bukhārī, Tirmidhī: ʿUmar's protest, the shirt, "he never prayed over a hypocrite after"). Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī draw the juristic point that the prohibition's being specified for the disbeliever shows that standing at a believer's grave to supplicate is a legislated worship; al-Mīzān binds vv. 84, 80, and 63:6 into one lesson — that for one whom unbelief has overcome, intercession is futile.
The exempt, the weepers, and divine justice (91–93). All the sources name the weepers (bakkāʾūn) — seven men who came unable to find a mount, asking only for sandals — as the occasion of "there is no blame on the weak, the sick, and those who find nothing to spend." Ṭabarsī adds Ibn Umm Maktūm the blind man and al-Wāqidī's count (thirty thousand at Tabuk). Baḥrānī enriches the verse with an Imāmī theology of God's justice (← al-Bāqir/al-Ṣādiq): God charges the servants only "with less than their capacity," lifting the obligation from those who cannot bear it — "no one is in straitness, yet over everyone God has His proof." al-Mīzān reads "no way against the doers of good" as their being in an impregnable fortress where no harm can reach them, the exemption conditioned on "sincerity to God and His Messenger."
"Prepared, not promised" (88–89). On the believers' Gardens, al-Mīzān marks that God "prepared (aʿadda)" rather than "promised (waʿada)" them — for "matters are by their endings," and God ties His promises to general descriptions (faith, righteous deeds), not named persons, lest obligation be combined with unconditional security (cf. 9:72; 48:29). The hypocrites, by contrast, "swear to please you; but if you are pleased with them, God is not pleased with the transgressing people" (95–96), Ṭabarsī citing the ḥadīth that whoever seeks people's pleasure at God's displeasure earns God's wrath.
The Bedouins (97–99). The sources read "the Bedouins are harsher in disbelief and hypocrisy" as the coarseness of distance from settled knowledge of God's bounds; among them, one takes his spending as a "fine (maghram)" and awaits the believers' misfortunes, while another "takes what he spends as means of nearness (qurubāt) to God and the Messenger's prayers" — and al-Ṣādiq affirms (Baḥrānī) that such a one is rewarded. al-Mīzān notes this verse prepares for the later alms-verse, "pray over them; your prayer is a comfort for them" (9:103).