Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
But why should not there go forth
a group from each of their sections
to become learned in religion,
and to warn their people
when they return to them,
so that they may beware?
123 O you who have faith!
Fight the faithless who are in your vicinity,
and let them find severity in you,
and know that Allah is with the Godwary.
124 Whenever a sūrah is sent down,
there are some of them 1 who say,
‘Which of you did it increase in faith?’
As for those who have faith,
it increases them in faith,
and they rejoice.
125 But as for those in whose heart is a sickness,
it only adds defilement to their defilement,
and they die while they are faithless.
126 Do they not see that they
are tried once or twice every year?
Yet they neither repent,
nor do they take admonition.
127And whenever a sūrah is sent down,
they look at one another:
‘Is anybody observing you?’
Then they slip away.
1 That is, the hypocrites.
