Tazkirul Quran, Qur’an 33:18–22

Translation

(18) God knows exactly who among you hold the others back, who say to their brethren, ‘Come over to our side,’ and they seldom take part in the fighting. (19) Begrudging you all help, but when danger comes, you can see them looking at you with rolling eyes as if in their death throes; but once their fear has passed, they come to you and do glib-talking in their greed for wealth. Such men have no faith, so God has foiled their actions. This is indeed easy for God. (20) They thought the confederate tribes would never withdraw. Indeed, if the confederates should come again, they would prefer to be in the desert, among the Bedouins. There they would ask news of you [from a distance]. But if they were with you, they would take very little part in the fighting. (21) You have indeed in the Prophet of God a good example for those of you who look to God and the Last Day, and remember God always. (22) When the believers saw the confederates, they said, ‘This is what God and His Messenger have promised us. Surely the promise of God and His Messenger has come true.’ It served to increase them in faith and submission.

Commentary

(a) There are those who lag behind at the time when sacrifice is required, but who feel ashamed of this shortcoming. Then there are others who do not make sacrifices when they are called for, but who feel no shame on this account. This amounts to adding arrogance to neglect of duty. A shortcoming may be pardonable, but arrogance is not.

Even if some apparently good deeds are performed by those who are flawed by arrogance, they are worthless, because the essence of a good deed is sincerity, and that is the very thing which is lacking.

Shirking the duty of making sacrifices for a religious cause is invariably the result of a love for worldly affairs. Man loses his faith for the sake of saving his worldly assets. When materially-minded people see that worldly advantage is coupled with religion, they display their oratorical skill in speaking in favour of religion, in order to show off their connection with religion and then they extract the maximum advantage from this. But when following religion means sacrifice, they lose interest in becoming men of religion.

b Wandering Arabs.

(a) The lives of the Prophet and his companions were of an exemplary, godly character and were meant to be followed by all the faithful till the Day of Judgement. They set an example to show what it means to seek God’s pleasure and merit success in the Hereafter; what is meant by remembering God; how to be steady and persevering in difficult times; how reliance is placed on the promises of God; what ever-increasing faith is and how it is achieved; and how to fulfill the vows taken before God.

The Prophet and his companions set the final example in all these matters. Under the most difficult circumstances, they did not falter. They were the embodiment of Islamic thought and Islamic character in all matters. Before the arrival of the moment of trial, they were firm in their acceptance of Truth and even after the arrival of that moment they remained unwavering.

Then, it was the life of the Prophet and his companions which set an example and showed that no decision was taken by God, unless one was put to the test. It is the way of God that He creates severe conditions so as to separate the truly faithful from the false claimants. In this Divine precept and practice, there was no exception earlier and neither will there be any exception in future.