Believers, have fear of God and always be friends with the truthful ones. 119 It did not befit the people of Medinah and the people of the villages around them, to stay behind the Noble Messenger of Allah, nor to consider their own lives dearer than his life; that is because the thirst or the pain or the hunger that afflicts them in Allah's cause, and the step they tread on a place that angers the disbelievers, and whatever harm they cause the enemy – a good deed is recorded for them in lieu of all of these; indeed Allah does not waste the wages of the virtuous. 120 Also, they would not have spent anything, great or small, for the cause of God or travel through a valley without God decreeing a reward for them far better than whatever they had done. 121 ۞ With all this, it is not desirable that all of the believers take the field [in time of war]. From within every group in their midst, some shall refrain from going forth to war, and shall devote themselves [instead] to acquiring a deeper knowledge of the Faith and [thus be able to] teach their home-coming brethren, so that these [too] might guard themselves against evil. 122