Believers, why is it that when it is said to you: 'March in the Way of Allah' you linger with heaviness in the land? Are you content with this life rather than the Everlasting Life? Yet the enjoyment of this life in (comparison to) the Everlasting Life is little. 38 If you do not go forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment and will replace you with another people, and you will not harm Him at all. And Allah is over all things competent. 39 If you do not help (the Prophet, remember) God had helped him when the infidels had forced him to leave (and he was) one of two. When both of them were in the cave, he said to his companion: "Do not grieve, for God is with us." Then God sent divine peace on him, and invisible armies for his help, and made the unbelievers' purpose abject. Most exalted is God's word, for God is all-mighty and all-wise. 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 a near advantage and a short journey, they would certainly have followed you, but the tedious journey was too long for them; and they swear by Allah: If we had been able, we would certainly have gone forth with you; they cause their own souls to perish, and Allah knows that they are most surely 42