O believers, do not stray from the path of God, and be with those who are truthful. 119 It was not proper for the people of Madinah and those desert Arabs around them to hold back from following God's Messenger, and to prefer their own lives to his life. This is because whenever they suffer from thirst or weariness or hunger for God's cause, and whenever they take any step which provokes those who deny the truth, or inflicts any loss upon the enemy, it shall be counted as a good deed in the sight of God, God will not deny the righteous their reward, 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 ۞ Nor should the Believers all go forth together: if a contingent from every expedition remained behind, they could devote themselves to studies in religion, and admonish the people when they return to them,- that thus they (may learn) to guard themselves (against evil). 122