Believers, what is the matter with you that when you are asked to go forth in the cause of God, you cling slothfully to the land? Do you prefer the life of this world to the Hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, compared to that of the Hereafter. 38 If you do not march for His cause, He will afflict your with a painful punishment and replace you by another nation and your (destruction) will not harm Him at all. God has power over all things. 39 If you do not help him, yet God has helped him already, when the unbelievers drove him forth the second of two, when the two were in the Cave, when he said to his companion, 'Sorrow not; surely God is with us.' Then God sent down on him His Shechina, and confirmed him with legions you did not see; and He made the word of the unbelievers the lowest; and God's word is the uppermost; God is All-mighty, All-wise. 40 Go forth light and heavy, and strive hard in Allah's way with your property and your persons; this is better for you, if you know. 41 Had the gain been immediate and the journey shorter, they would have followed you: but the distance seemed too great for them. Yet they will swear by God, "Had we been able, we would have gone out with you." They bring ruin upon themselves. God knows that they are surely lying. 42