وَجَآءَ ٱلْمُعَذِّرُونَ مِنَ ٱلْأَعْرَابِ لِيُؤْذَنَ لَهُمْ وَقَعَدَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ ۚ سَيُصِيبُ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِنْهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
Important Words:
المعذرون (those who make excuses) is the plural of معذر which is the active participle from عذر. (‘adhdhara) which again is derived from عذر (‘adhara). They say عذرہ i.e. he excused him or he cleared him from blame, or he accepted his excuse. عذر(‘adhdhara) means, he was without excuse; or he affected to excuse himself but had no excuse; or he excused himself but did not adduce a valid excuse for doing so; he was remiss or wanting or deficient in an affair, setting up an excuse for being so; he did not act vigorously in the affair, causing it to be imagined that he had an excuse when really he had none. Thus معذر is one who falls short of his duty and then excuses himself without having any real excuse; whereas معتذر is one who excuses himself whether he has a real excuse or not (Lane).
Commentary:
The verse speaks of the hypocrites as well as of those weak of faith who did not join the expedition to Tabuk. Some of them were disbelievers at heart, while others were only weak of faith.
Mu‘adhdhir is derived from ‘Adhdhara which means, he excused or affected to excuse himself but did not adduce a valid excuse for doing so; he was remiss or wanting or deficient in an affair, setting up an excuse for being so. Thus the word means, one who falls short of his duty and then excuses himself without having any real excuse (Lane).