Those who believe ask why no chapter [about fighting] has been sent down. Yet when a decisive chapter that mentions fighting is sent down, you can see the sick of heart looking at you [Prophet] as if they were under the shadow of death. Therefore, woe to them! 20 Obedience and good words. And when the matter [of fighting] was determined, if they had been true to Allah, it would have been better for them. 21 Would ye then, if ye were given the command, work corruption in the land and sever your ties of kinship? 22 Those are they whom Allah hath cursed, and then hath deafened them and blinded their sights. 23 Do they not then earnestly seek to understand the Qur'an, or are their hearts locked up by them? 24 As for those who turn back in their footsteps after the guidance of Allah has become clear to them, it was satan who tempted them, and Allah has respited them. 25 [they do turn their backs on it] inasmuch as they are wont to say unto those who abhor all that God has revealed, "We will comply with your views on some points." But God knows their secret thoughts: 26 How shall it be when the angels (of death) take them and beat them on their face and back? 27 That is because they have followed a way that angered Allah, and have been averse to His good pleasure. So He reduced all their works to nought. 28