His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "It is not for the people of Medina and those around them from the Bedouins to stay behind the Messenger of Allah, nor to prefer themselves over him. This is because they do not suffer from thirst, nor exhaustion, nor hunger in the way of Allah, nor do they tread on a place that angers the disbelievers, nor do they attain anything from an enemy except that it is recorded for them as a righteous deed. Indeed, Allah does not waste the reward of the doers of good." "And they do not spend a small or large expense, nor do they cut across a valley, except that it is recorded for them so that Allah may reward them with the best of what they used to do." This is a reprimand for the believers from the people of Yathrib and the neighboring Arab tribes for staying behind the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, in his expedition. The strength of the words gives the command to accompany him in his journey as a fighter and to sacrifice their souls for him. The interpreters have differed. Qatadah said: This obligation was specific to the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and the necessity of going forth to fight when he himself went out. This ruling did not remain with others from the caliphs. Zayd ibn Aslam said: This matter and obligation was during the scarcity of Islam and the need for the connection of hands, then it was abrogated when Islam became strong by His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "And it is not for the believers to go forth all together." (At-Tawbah: 122). Al-Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: All of this is regarding the mobilization to fight the enemy and entering into Islam. As for when the enemy threatens a direction, it is obligatory for everyone to rise to defend against it and to confront it. As for His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "nor to prefer themselves over him," its meaning is that the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, should not endure hardship for the sake of Allah and give of himself in the way of Allah, while they show stinginess towards themselves and refrain from what he has entered into. Then He mentioned why it was not permissible for them to stay behind the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, by saying: "This is because they..." The verse. And النصب (an-nasb) means exhaustion. From it is the saying of an-Nabighah: (p-433) "O Umaymah, relieve me of my worry, for I am exhausted..." Meaning: of exhaustion. From it is His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "Indeed, we have encountered exhaustion from this journey of ours." (Al-Kahf: 62). And المخمصه (al-makhmasah) is a noun derived from خمص (khams) of the belly, which is its emaciation, and that is borrowed for the state of hunger since emaciation is associated with it. From that is the saying of al-A'sha: "You spend the night in the winter with full bellies... while your neighbors are starving and they spend the night emaciated." And from it is: "the emaciation of the foot," and الخمصانة (al-khamasanah) is from women.

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿And they do not tread upon a tread﴾ means: and they do not stop on a part of the earth that is harmful to the disbelievers. And that is what causes them distress. From this, in the 'Mudanah': 'We did not perform ablution from a tread,' from the saying of Ibn Mas'ud. And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿And they do not attain from an enemy any attainment﴾ is a general term for the little that the believers do against the disbelievers, whether it is taking wealth or bringing about humiliation, and much of it. And 'attainment' is the source of 'naala yanalu.' It is not from their saying: 'I attained it, I will give it,' and it was said that it is from it, and the 'waw' was replaced with a 'ya' for its lightness here. And this is weak. Al-Tabari mentioned something similar and weakened it, saying: 'This is not known from the speech of the Arabs.' And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿And they do not spend﴾, the verse has prioritized the smaller matter for emphasis. That is, if the smaller is written, the larger is more deserving. And 'wadi' is what is between the two mountains, whether there is water in it or not, and its plural is 'awadiyyah.' There is no occurrence in the speech of the Arabs of 'fa'il' and 'af'ilah' except in this letter alone. And in the hadith: 'No people increase in their distance from their families in the way of Allah except that they increase in closeness to Allah.'