May God forgive you! (Muhammad), why did you not let them join the army so that you could discern the liars from the truthful ones? 43 Those who believe in God and the Last Day ask not leave of thee, that they may struggle with their possessions and their selves; and God knows the godfearing. 44 They only ask leave of thee who believe not in God and the Last Day, those whose hearts are filled with doubt, so that in their doubt they go this way and that. 45 ۞ Had they (the hypocrites) wanted to join your army, they would have prepared themselves, but God did not wish to motivate them, so He caused them to linger behind with those whose joining you in battle would be of no use. 46 If they had gone forth among you, you would then not gain any increase from them except trouble, and seeking to cause turmoil they would run rumours among you; and their spies are among you; and Allah well knows the unjust. 47 Surely they sought even earlier to stir up sedition, and turned things upside down to frustrate you until the Truth came and the decree of Allah appeared, however hateful this may have been to them. 48 Some of them ask you, "Make us exempt from taking part in the battle and do not try to tempt us by telling us what we may gain from the battle; many people have died in the battle." Hell certainly encompasses the unbelievers. 49 If good befalls you, it grieves them, but if a misfortune befalls you, they say, "We took our precautions beforehand!" They turn away rejoicing. 50 Tell them: "Nothing can befall us except what God decrees. Our protector is He, and in God should the faithful place their trust." 51 Say: "Are you, perchance, hopefully waiting for something [bad] to happen to us - [the while nothing can happen to us] save one of the two best things? But as far as you are concerned, we are hopefully waiting for God to inflict chastisement upon you, [either] from Himself or by our hands! Wait, then, hopefully; behold, we shall hopefully wait with you!" 52 Say: 'Whether you spend voluntarily or reluctantly it shall not be accepted from you; for you are a wicked nation' 53 Nothing prevents the acceptance of what they spend except that they do not believe in God and His Apostle, and come to worship but languidly and spend only grudgingly. 54 So let not their possessions or their children please thee; God only desires thereby to chastise them in this present life, and that their souls should depart while they are unbelievers. 55 They swear by Allah that they are part of you whereas they are certainly not part of you. They are merely a people who dread you. 56 if they could but find a place of refuge, or any cavern, or a crevice [in the earth,] they would turn towards it in headlong haste. 57 There are some among them who find fault with you concerning the distribution of alms. If a share is given to them they are contented, but if they receive nothing then they are angry. 58 And if they were content with what Allah and His Apostle gave them, and had said: Allah is sufficient for us; Allah will soon give us (more) out of His grace and His Apostle too; surely to Allah do we make our petition. 59