Translation of the meanings Ayah 81 Surah At-Tawbah - English Translation - Dr. Waleed Bleyhesh Omary - The Noble Qur'an Encyclopedia

Ayah: 81

فَرِحَ ٱلۡمُخَلَّفُونَ بِمَقۡعَدِهِمۡ خِلَٰفَ رَسُولِ ٱللَّهِ وَكَرِهُوٓاْ أَن يُجَٰهِدُواْ بِأَمۡوَٰلِهِمۡ وَأَنفُسِهِمۡ فِي سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَقَالُواْ لَا تَنفِرُواْ فِي ٱلۡحَرِّۗ قُلۡ نَارُ جَهَنَّمَ أَشَدُّ حَرّٗاۚ لَّوۡ كَانُواْ يَفۡقَهُونَ

(81) ^[2185]The stay-backers were pleased with their station behind the Messenger of Allah; they hated to strive in the path of Allah with their money and lives and said: “Do not mobilize in the heat!” Say ˹Muhammad˺: “The heat of Hellfire is surely more severe” ^[2186] – if only they would discern.

[2185] This and the next three passages generally deal with not abiding by the command to mobilize when called upon. The depravity surrounding such an act of defiance is varyingly highlighted through the use of a defamatory label of the same root kh-l-f: al-mukhallafūna (the stay-backers, lit. the ones made to stay back), al-khālifūna (the fall-behinders) and al-khawālif (the ˹incapacitated˺ stayers, which is repeated twice) (cf. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah).
[2186] Abū Hurayrah (ﷺ) narrated that the Messenger (ﷺ) said: “This fire of yours, which the son of Adam inflames, is ˹only˺ one part of seventy parts of the heat of Hell. They ˹the Companions˺ said: “By Allah it ˹the worldly fire˺ is sufficient ˹as punishment˺, Messenger of Allah!” He said: “It ˹Hell˺ has been made severer that this one sixty nine times over. Each of them is equal to the worldly fire” (al-Bukhārī: 3265, Muslim: 2849).