Surah An-Nisa Verse 77

595 Before the command for fighting was issued there were some who were impatient, and could scarcely be held back. They wanted fighting from human motives-pugnacity, the love of plunder, hatred against their enemies, the gaining of personal ends. Fighting from such motives is wrong at all times. When the testing time came, and they had to fight, not for their own land, but for a Sacred Cause, in which there was much suffering and little personal gain, the hypocrites held back and were afraid. 596 "Our natural term of life," they would say, "is short enough: why should we jeopardize it by fighting in which there is no personal gain?" The answer is begun in this verse and continued in the next. Briefly, the answer is: (1) in any case the pleasures of this world are short: this life is fleeting; the first thing for a righteous man to do is to emancipate himself from its obsessions; (2) to do your duty is to do right; therefore turn your attention mainly to duty; (3) when duty calls for self-sacrifice, be sure that Allah's call is never unjust, and never such as to exceed your capacity; and (4) if you fear death, you will not by fear escape death; it will find you out wherever you are; why not face it boldly when duty calls?