O believers, fear God, and be 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 There is not a sum, large or small, that they spend, not a piece of land that they traverse (in the service of God) which is not put down in their favour, so that God could reward them for what they had done. 121 ۞ It was not necessary for the believers to go forth all together (to receive religious instruction), but why did not a party of them go forth that they may grow in religious understanding, and that they may warn their people when they return to them, so that they may avoid (erroneous attitudes)? 122