وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَقُولُ ٱئْذَن لِّى وَلَا تَفْتِنِّىٓ ۚ أَلَا فِى ٱلْفِتْنَةِ سَقَطُوا۟ ۗ وَإِنَّ جَهَنَّمَ لَمُحِيطَةٌۢ بِٱلْكَٰفِرِينَ
Commentary:
Some of the hypocrites sought to be excused on the plea that the Syrian women were exceptionally beautiful, and that if they went to that country they were likely to fall into temptation, meaning thereby that they wanted to stay behind only in order to save their morals and their faith. But faith, the verse tersely points out, they had already lost; for it was for God’s sake that they had to undertake the journey, and since they declined to respond to the Call of God, they could not be said to possess any faith. They destroyed the root to save the branch, if indeed they meant to save it.