This incident demonstrates that if a person does not hasten to carry out a righteous act, he is liable to be barred from it altogether. Allah the Exalted says, “We shall turn their hearts and their sight away, because they refused to believe in it the first time; and We shall leave them to wander blindly in their transgression” (al-Anʿām 110). Thus, when someone recognizes the truth yet fails to accept it and submit to it at the very outset, he may lose the chance and be forever deprived—Allah’s protection is sought. Likewise, if a person does not exercise patience at the initial shock of a calamity, he forfeits its reward, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “True patience is only at the first blow.”

Therefore, my brother, hasten to good deeds. Do not postpone them, allowing the days to slip by until you are overcome by weakness, lethargy, Satan, and capricious desire, and end up staying behind. Kaʿb—may Allah be pleased with him—kept saying each day, “I will set out,” yet time passed and he never did.

He later recounted how pained he felt whenever he went to the marketplace of Madinah and realized that the city held neither the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) nor Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, nor the early forerunners from the Emigrants and the Helpers. The only people left were either men steeped in hypocrisy—Allah’s refuge is sought—whose hypocrisy kept them from departing, or men whom Allah had excused. Kaʿb would reproach himself: How could I remain in the city with such people? Meanwhile, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) never mentioned him or inquired about him until the army reached Tabuk.

While he was there seated among his Companions, the Messenger of Allah said, “Where is…"