The desert Arabs who lagged behind will say to thee: "We were engaged in (looking after) our flocks and herds, and our families: do thou then ask forgiveness for us." They say with their tongues what is not in their hearts. Say: "Who then has any power at all (to intervene) on your behalf with Allah, if His Will is to give you some loss or to give you some profit? But Allah is well acquainted with all that ye do. 11 "Nay, ye thought that the Messenger and the Believers would never return to their families; this seemed pleasing in your hearts, and ye conceived an evil thought, for ye are a people lost (in wickedness)." 12 And whosoever does not believe in Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad SAW), then verily, We have prepared for the disbelievers a blazing Fire. 13 To God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; He may forgive whosoever He please, and afflict whosoever He will. Yet God is forgiving and kind. 14 As soon as you [O believers] are about to set forth on a war that promises booty, those who stayed behind [aforetime] will surely say: "Allow us to go with you" - [thus showing that] they would like to alter the Word of God. Say: "By no means shall you go with us: God has declared aforetime [to whom all spoils shall belong]." Thereupon they will [surely] answer, "Nay, but you begrudge us [our share of booty]!" Nay, they can grasp but so little of the truth! 15 Say to those of the dwellers of the desert who were left behind: You shall soon be invited (to fight) against a people possessing mighty prowess; you will fight against them until they submit; then if you obey, Allah will grant you a good reward; and if you turn back as you turned back before, He will punish you with a painful punishment. 16 There is no harm in the blind, nor is there any harm in the lame, nor is there any harm in the sick (if they do not go forth); and whoever obeys Allah and His Apostle, He will cause him to enter gardens beneath which rivers flow, and whoever turns back, He will punish him with a painful punishment. 17