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 go forth, He will chastise you with a painful chastisement and bring in your place a people other than you, and you will do Him no harm; and Allah has power over all things. 39 If you do not help him (Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him), Allah has helped him – when he had to go forth due to the mischief of the disbelievers, just as two men* – when they were in the cave, when he was saying to his companion “Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us”; then Allah caused His calm to descend upon him and helped him with armies you did not see, and disgraced the word of the disbelievers; and Allah’s Word is supreme; and Allah is the Almighty, the Wise. (* The Holy Prophet migrated only with S. Abu Bakr (who later became the first caliph) as his sole companion.) 40 Go forth to war, whether it be easy or difficult [for you,] and strive hard in God's cause with your possessions and your lives: this is for your own good - if you but knew it! 41 Had it been an easy gain and a moderate trip, the hypocrites would have followed you, but distant to them was the journey. And they will swear by Allah, "If we were able, we would have gone forth with you," destroying themselves [through false oaths], and Allah knows that indeed they are liars. 42