The Excuses of the Hypocrites: 'Do Not Tempt Me'

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

As the Prophet ﷺ called men to march, the hypocrites not only withheld their wealth but spun excuses to stay behind, some before the army left, some after it returned.

"Grant me leave, and do not tempt me." The Prophet ﷺ invited al-Jadd ibn Qays, a Khazrajī notable of Ibn Ubayy's circle: "Would you not campaign against the Romans?" He answered with a flimsy pretext, that he had a weakness for women and feared he could not endure the sight of the Byzantine women, the Banāt Banī al-Aṣfar ("the sons of the yellow," as the Arabs called the Romans). The Prophet ﷺ merely turned away from him, and Allāh exposed him: وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَقُولُ ائْذَن لِّي وَلَا تَفْتِنِّي, "and among them is he who says, 'Grant me leave and do not tempt me'", أَلَا فِي الْفِتْنَةِ سَقَطُوا, "surely into the fitnah they have already fallen" (9:49): by that very lie they fell headlong into what they claimed to flee.

❧Rejoicing at staying behind

Of the hypocrites Allāh said فَرِحَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ بِمَقْعَدِهِمْ خِلَافَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ… وَقَالُوا لَا تَنفِرُوا فِي الْحَرِّ, they rejoiced to sit behind the Messenger, telling one another, "Do not march in the heat", to which came قُلْ نَارُ جَهَنَّمَ أَشَدُّ حَرًّا, "Say: the Fire of Hell is far hotter" (9:81); let them laugh little and weep much. And 9:42: لَوْ كَانَ عَرَضًا قَرِيبًا وَسَفَرًا قَاصِدًا لَّاتَّبَعُوكَ, had it been an easy gain and a short journey they would have followed, but the distance was too hard for them. So gentle was the Prophet ﷺ in accepting their excuses that Allāh mildly reproached him: عَفَا اللَّهُ عَنكَ لِمَ أَذِنتَ لَهُمْ (9:43), "may Allāh pardon you, why did you grant them leave?"