یٰۤاَیُّهَا O you who believe الَّذِیْنَ O you who believe اٰمَنُوا O you who believe اتَّقُوا Fear اللّٰهَ Allah وَ كُوْنُوْا and be مَعَ with الصّٰدِقِیْنَ those who are truthful مَا Not كَانَ it was لِاَهْلِ (for) the people الْمَدِیْنَةِ of the Madinah وَ مَنْ and who حَوْلَهُمْ were around them مِّنَ of الْاَعْرَابِ the bedouins اَنْ that یَّتَخَلَّفُوْا they remain behind عَنْ after رَّسُوْلِ the Messenger اللّٰهِ of Allah وَ لَا and not یَرْغَبُوْا they prefer بِاَنْفُسِهِمْ their lives عَنْ to نَّفْسِهٖ ؕ his life ذٰلِكَ That is بِاَنَّهُمْ because [they] لَا (does) not یُصِیْبُهُمْ afflict them ظَمَاٌ thirst وَّ لَا and not نَصَبٌ fatigue وَّ لَا and not مَخْمَصَةٌ hunger فِیْ in سَبِیْلِ (the) way اللّٰهِ (of) Allah وَ لَا and not یَطَـُٔوْنَ they step مَوْطِئًا any step یَّغِیْظُ that angers الْكُفَّارَ the disbelievers وَ لَا and not یَنَالُوْنَ they inflict مِنْ on عَدُوٍّ an enemy نَّیْلًا an infliction اِلَّا except كُتِبَ is recorded لَهُمْ for them بِهٖ in it عَمَلٌ (as) a deed صَالِحٌ ؕ righteous اِنَّ Indeed اللّٰهَ Allah لَا (does) not یُضِیْعُ allow to be lost اَجْرَ the reward الْمُحْسِنِیْنَۙ (of) the good-doers وَ لَا And not یُنْفِقُوْنَ they spend نَفَقَةً any spending صَغِیْرَةً small وَّ لَا and not كَبِیْرَةً big وَّ لَا and not یَقْطَعُوْنَ they cross وَادِیًا a valley اِلَّا but كُتِبَ is recorded لَهُمْ for them لِیَجْزِیَهُمُ that Allah may reward them اللّٰهُ that Allah may reward them اَحْسَنَ the best مَا (of) what كَانُوْا they used (to) یَعْمَلُوْنَ do وَ مَا And not كَانَ is الْمُؤْمِنُوْنَ (for) the believers لِیَنْفِرُوْا that they go forth كَآفَّةً ؕ all together فَلَوْ لَا So if not نَفَرَ go forth مِنْ from كُلِّ every فِرْقَةٍ group مِّنْهُمْ among them طَآىِٕفَةٌ a party لِّیَتَفَقَّهُوْا that they may obtain understanding فِی in الدِّیْنِ the religion وَ لِیُنْذِرُوْا and that they may warn قَوْمَهُمْ their people اِذَا when رَجَعُوْۤا they return اِلَیْهِمْ to them لَعَلَّهُمْ so that they may یَحْذَرُوْنَ۠ beware
[9:119] Believers! Have fear of Allah and stand with those that are truthful.
[9:120] It did not behove the people of Madinah and the bedouin Arabs around them that they should refrain from accompanying the Messenger of Allah and stay behind and prefer their own security to his. For whenever they suffer from thirst or weariness or hunger in the Way of Allah, and whenever they tread a place which enrages the unbelievers (whenever anything of this comes to pass), a good deed is recorded in their favour. Allah does not cause the work of the doers of good to go to waste.
[9:121] Likewise, each amount they spend, be it small or large, and each journey they undertake, shall be recorded in their favour so that Allah may bestow upon them reward for their good deeds.
[9:122] 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)?120
120. In order to comprehend the meaning of this verse, Ayat 97 with which it is connected, should be kept in view:
These bedouins are most stubborn in unbelief and hypocrisy, and, in all probability, will remain ignorant of the laws of the way which Allah has sent down to His Messenger.
In Ayat 97, the Quran merely diagnosed the disease and pointed out its symptoms. The bedouins were suffering from the disease of hypocrisy because of their ignorance of the laws of the Way of Allah. This was so because they had not had any connections with the center of that knowledge. Here in this concluding portion of the Surah, the remedy of that disease has been prescribed so that they should have an understanding of Islam and its implications. It is not necessary that for this purpose all of them should leave their homes and come to Al-Madinah to learn that knowledge, but some of them should come from each habitation, clan and region to the centers of the knowledge (Al-Madinah, Makkah and the like) and understand Islam. Then they should go back to their own habitations and create its understanding among the common people.
This was a very important instruction that was given at the opportune moment to strengthen the Islamic movement. For, at that time, the people were entering into the fold of Islam in large numbers without its proper understanding. Obviously, this instruction was not needed in the initial stages of the movement, for at that time everyone who embraced Islam did so with its full understanding. No one would think of becoming a Muslim without this as this was an invitation to persecution. When the movement became successful and won power in the land, the clans and the habitations began to enter en bloc into the fold of Islam. Naturally very few of them understood the full implications of the faith before accepting it, but the majority of them were being carried into the fold, as it were, by the strong current that had been generated by the movement. Outwardly this immense increase in numbers appeared to be a source of strength to Islam, but in reality such people as had no true understanding of Islam and were, therefore, not prepared to fulfill its moral obligations, were not only useless for the Islamic system but were actually harmful to it. This side of the matter became quite apparent during the preparations for the Tabuk expedition. That is why Allah sent down the instruction that necessary steps should be taken for the integration of the Islamic community so that it may keep pace with the immense increase in its number. Therefore some people should be brought out from every habitation and taught and trained in the requirements of Islam and these in their turn should teach and train their own people so that the whole Muslim population should understand Islam and obtain the knowledge of the limits prescribed by Allah. In this connection, it should also be clearly understood that the command about mass education given in this verse is not merely about literacy but it had the definite aim of imparting the understanding of the way of Islam among the masses and enabling them to refrain from un-Islamic ways. This is the real and permanent aim of education that has been set before the Muslims by Allah himself. Therefore every system of their education shall be judged by this criterion and shall be regarded Islamic only to the extent it fulfills this aim. It does not, however, mean that Islam is against the spreading of literacy and teaching of the purely mundane subjects to the masses, but it simply means that the primary aim of the Islamic education should be the achievement of the objective which has been mentioned above in italics. Without this, it does not consider any education to be education at all, even if it were to produce Einsteins and Freuds of the age.
It will be worthwhile to consider the true significance of the words used in the context, for they created a strange misunderstanding among the people of the later period, and produced lasting poisonous effects on the religious education of the Muslims, nay, on their whole religious life in general. It is obvious that Allah used these words in order to lay down the objective of education before the Muslims, which was this: to understand the Islamic way of life and have an insight into its system: to be familiar with its true nature and spirit so as to be able to judge and differentiate between the Islamic and the un-Islamic ways of thought and conduct in every aspect of life. But later on when the knowledge of the Muslim law was given the technical name of fiqh, it gradually developed into the science of the details of external form (as opposed to the spiritual aspect of the Islamic law). As the word fiqh is of the same root as used in this verse, a misunderstanding was created that this command of the Quran was about acquiring the knowledge of fiqh in the above-mentioned sense. It is true that this knowledge is of great importance in the Islamic system of life, but it is not all that is required by the Quran but only a part of the objective. It is not possible to recount here all the damages that the Muslim community has suffered because of this misunderstanding, but suffice it to say that this is the thing, which is responsible for reducing the religious education of the Muslims to the knowledge and interpretation of the external form of Islam without paying any attention to the spirit of Islam. This inevitably resulted in making lifeless formalism the ultimate goal of the life of the Muslims.