Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:34
Except for those who return [repenting] before you apprehend them. And know that Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of Him, mighty is His mention: إِلا الَّذِينَ تَابُوا مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ تَقْدِرُوا عَلَيْهِمْ فَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ (34) ("Except those who repented before you gained power over them; then know that Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The scholars of exegesis differed concerning the interpretation of this.
Some said: The meaning of it is: except those who repented from their shirk, their waging of armed combat (qitāl) against Allah and His Messenger, and their striving for corruption on earth — by [embracing] Islam and entering into the faith — before the believers gained power over them. For the believers then have no way against them with respect to any of the punishments that Allah has appointed as a requital for whoever wages war against Him and His Messenger and strives for corruption on earth — no killing (qatl), no crucifixion, no cutting off of hand and foot on opposite sides, no banishment from the earth. There then rests upon him no liability toward anyone for what he inflicted in the state of his unbelief and his war against the believers — neither in property, nor in blood, nor in inviolability. They said: As for the Muslim, however, who fights against the Muslims or the protected people (people with a covenant) and commits something for which the punishment becomes obligatory — his repentance does not lift from him the punishment of his crime; rather, his repentance is a matter between him and Allah, and it is for the imam to carry out the prescribed penalty (ḥadd) that Allah has imposed upon him, and to claim from him the rights of the people.
The mention of who said that:
11872 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid, on the authority of Yazīd al-Naḥwī, on the authority of ʿIkrima and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, both of whom said concerning His saying إِنَّمَا جَزَاءُ الَّذِينَ يُحَارِبُونَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَيَسْعَوْنَ فِي الأَرْضِ ("Indeed, the requital of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive for corruption on earth…") up to His saying "then know that Allah is Forgiving, Merciful": This verse was revealed concerning the polytheists (mushrikīn). Whoever of them repents before one gains power over him, against him there is no way. And this verse does not exempt the Muslim man from the prescribed penalty (ḥadd) if he kills, or causes corruption on earth, or wages war against Allah and His Messenger, and thereafter joins the unbelievers before one gains power over him. Upon such a one the prescribed penalty is carried out for what he committed.
11873 - Bashshār related to us, saying: Rawḥ ibn ʿUbāda related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "except those who repented before you gained power over them; then know that Allah is Forgiving, Merciful," he said: This applies to the people of shirk: if they commit something in their shirk, then Allah is Forgiving, Merciful, if they repent and turn to Islam.
11874 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: إِنَّمَا جَزَاءُ الَّذِينَ يُحَارِبُونَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَيَسْعَوْنَ فِي الأَرْضِ فَسَادًا ("Indeed, the requital of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive for corruption on earth…") — fornication (zinā), theft, killing a person, and the destruction of the crops and the offspring. "Except those who repented before you gained power over them" — in the time of the Messenger, may Allah's peace and blessing be upon him.
11875 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hushaym informed us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, he said: There was a people between whom and the Messenger, may Allah's peace and blessing be upon him, a covenant existed. They broke the covenant, cut off the road (committed highway robbery), and caused corruption on earth. Then Allah gave His Prophet, may Allah's peace and blessing be upon him, the choice concerning them: if he wished, he killed; if he wished, he crucified; and if he wished, he cut off their hands and feet on opposite sides. And whoever repented before one gained power over him, that was accepted from him.
11876 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying إِنَّمَا جَزَاءُ الَّذِينَ يُحَارِبُونَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ ("Indeed, the requital of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger…"), the verse. He mentioned something similar to the saying of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, except that he said: If he comes repentant and enters into Islam, it is accepted from him, and he is not called to account for what is already past.
11877 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "except those who repented before you gained power over them," he said: This applies to the people of shirk: if they commit something of this in their shirk and thereafter turn [to Islam] and become Muslims, then Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
11878 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī and Qatāda: As for His saying "except those who repented before you gained power over them," this applies to the people of shirk. Whoever of the polytheists struck something of the Muslims while he was at war with them, thus taking property and shedding blood, and thereafter turned [to Islam] before one gained power over him, that which was past was forgiven him.
* * *
Others said: Rather this verse, with respect to the ruling pronounced by it, is directed at the warriors against Allah and His Messenger: the highway robbers (al-ḥurrāb) among the people of Islam — whoever of them cuts off the road (commits highway robbery) while persisting in his Islam, and thereafter seeks protection and protection is granted for the crimes he committed while he was at war with the Muslims; and whoever of them did that as an apostate (murtadd) from Islam, and thereafter joined the territory of war (dār al-ḥarb) and thereafter sought protection and protection is granted. They said: When the imam grants him protection for the crimes he committed previously, then there rests upon him no liability toward anyone for blood or property that he struck before his repentance and before the imam's protection [granted] to him.
The mention of who said that:
11879 - ʿAlī ibn Sahl related to me, saying: Al-Walīd related to us, saying: Abū Usāma informed me, on the authority of Ashʿath ibn Sawwār, on the authority of ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī: that Ḥāritha ibn Badr went out as a warrior (highway robber), made the road unsafe, shed blood, and took properties, and thereafter came repentant before one gained power over him. Then ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, peace be upon him, accepted his repentance, and granted him a public safe-conduct for the blood or property he had struck.
11880 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hushaym informed us, on the authority of Mujālid, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī: that Ḥāritha ibn Badr waged war in the time of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. He came to al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with them both, and asked him to request a safe-conduct for him from ʿAlī, but he refused. Then he came to Ibn Jaʿfar, but he too refused him. Then he came to Saʿīd ibn Qays al-Hamdānī, and he granted him protection and took him in. And he said to him: Request a safe-conduct for me from the Commander of the Believers ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. He (al-Shaʿbī) said: When ʿAlī had performed the morning prayer, Saʿīd ibn Qays came to him and said: O Commander of the Believers, what is the requital of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger? He said: That they be killed, or crucified, or that their hands and feet be cut off on opposite sides, or that they be banished from the earth. He said: Then he said: "except those who repented before you gained power over them." Saʿīd said: Even if it is Ḥāritha ibn Badr? He said: Even if it is Ḥāritha ibn Badr! He said: Well then, this is Ḥāritha ibn Badr, come repentant — is he then safe? He said: Yes! He said: Then he brought him, and he gave him the oath of allegiance, and he (ʿAlī) accepted that from him, and wrote him a safe-conduct.
11881 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mughrāʾ related to us, on the authority of Mujālid, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, he said: Ḥāritha ibn Badr had caused corruption on earth and waged war, and thereafter repented. Intercession was made for him with ʿAlī, but he did not grant him a safe-conduct. Then he came to Saʿīd ibn Qays and spoke with him, and Saʿīd ibn Qays went to ʿAlī and said: O Commander of the Believers, what do you say about whoever wages war against Allah and His Messenger? — And he recited the whole verse. He (ʿAlī) said: What do you think of whoever repents before one gains power over him? He said: I say as Allah has said. He said: Well then, it is Ḥāritha ibn Badr! He said: Then ʿAlī granted him a safe-conduct, and Ḥāritha said:
"Inform Hamdān, indeed, if you should meet her, despite the distance: no enemy who reviles her remains unharmed.
By the life of her father, indeed, Hamdān fears God, and her orator judges according to the Book."
11882 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His saying "except those who repented before you gained power over them": His repentance before one gains power over him means that he writes to the imam to request from him a safe-conduct for whom he has killed and the corruption on earth he has caused: "If you do not grant me a safe-conduct for that, I shall add yet more corruption, killing, and taking of properties than what I have done before." And it is the duty of the imam, by right, to grant him a safe-conduct for that. When the imam has then granted him a safe-conduct, he comes until he places his hand in the hand of the imam, and then no one of the people has the right to pursue him, nor to seize him for blood he has shed or property he has taken. And all the property that was his remains his — so that he does not again kill the believers and cause corruption. And when he returns to Allah, exalted and mighty is He, then He is his protector; He calls him to account for what he did, and his repentance is a matter between him and the imam and the people. And when the imam seizes him while, by his claim, he had already repented before Allah, praised be His praise, before the imam granted him a safe-conduct, then he must carry out upon him the prescribed penalty (ḥadd).
11883 - ʿAlī ibn Sahl related to us, saying: Al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, he said: Makḥūl informed me, that he said: When the imam gives him a safe-conduct, then he is safe, and the prescribed penalty (ḥadd) is not carried out upon him for what he had struck.
* * *
Others said: The meaning of it is: everyone who comes repentant among the highway robbers before [there is] power over him — whether he requests a safe-conduct from the imam and he grants him a safe-conduct, or he does not request a safe-conduct — after he comes submitting and ceasing the war.
The mention of who said that:
11884 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of Ashʿath, on the authority of ʿĀmir, he said: A man of (the tribe of) Murād came to Abū Mūsā, while he was appointed over Kufa under the rule of ʿUthmān, after he had performed the obligatory prayer, and said: O Abū Mūsā, this is the place of whoever seeks protection with you; I am so-and-so, son of so-and-so, the Murādī. I had waged war against Allah and His Messenger, and had caused corruption on earth, and indeed, I have repented before you gained power over me! Then Abū Mūsā stood up and said: This is so-and-so, son of so-and-so, and indeed, he had waged war against Allah and His Messenger, and caused corruption on earth, and indeed, he has repented before one gained power over him; so whoever meets him, let him treat him only with good. The man remained as long as Allah willed, and thereafter he went out, and Allah, exalted and mighty is He, overtook him with his sins and killed him.
11885 - Al-Ḥārith ibn Muḥammad related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl al-Suddī, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, he said: A man came to Abū Mūsā — and he mentioned something similar.
11886 - ʿAlī ibn Sahl related to me, saying: Al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to us, saying: I said to Mālik: What do you think of this warrior (highway robber) who has made the road unsafe, and struck blood and property, and thereafter joined the territory of war (dār al-ḥarb), or made himself inviolable in the lands of Islam, and thereafter came repentant before one gained power over him? He said: His repentance is accepted. He (al-Walīd) said: I said: Is he then not pursued for any of his offenses? He said: No — except that if property is found with him that still exists as such (in kind), it is returned to its owner, or that the guardian (walī) of someone whom he struck with blood (by killing) during his war pursues him, that being established by evidence or a confession, and then retaliation (qiṣāṣ/qawad) is carried out upon him. But as for the bloodshed that he struck and for which the guardians do not demand pursuit, the imam pursues him for none of it. ʿAlī said: Al-Walīd said: I mentioned that to Abū ʿAmr, and he said: His repentance is accepted when he waged war against the community and the leaders, harming them by his war, baring his weapon, and striking blood and properties, and he had a force of protection (manʿa) or a group (fiʾa) with which he took refuge, or he joined the territory of war and became an apostate from Islam, or persisted in it — and thereafter came repentant before one gained power over him: then his repentance is accepted, and he is pursued for none of that.
11887 - ʿAlī related to me, saying: Al-Walīd related to us, saying: Abū ʿAmr said: I heard Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī say that.
11888 - ʿAlī ibn Sahl related to me, saying: Al-Walīd related to us, saying: I mentioned the saying of Abū ʿAmr and Mālik to al-Layth ibn Saʿd on this question, and he said: When he openly declares war against the community and the leaders, and strikes blood and properties, and removes himself by his warfare from being judged over, or joins the territory of war, and thereafter comes repentant before one gains power over him, then his repentance is accepted, and he is pursued for none of his offenses in his war — as for blood, neither particular nor general, even if his guardian (walī) claims him.
11889 - ʿAlī related to me, saying: Al-Walīd related to us, saying: Al-Layth said — and likewise Mūsā ibn Isḥāq al-Madanī, who is the emir over us, related to me: that ʿAlī al-Asadī waged war, made the road unsafe, and struck blood and property; the leaders and the community sought him, but he made himself inviolable and one did not gain power over him, until he came repentant. And that came about because he heard a man reciting this verse: قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنْفُسِهِمْ لا تَقْنَطُوا مِنْ رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ [Sūrat al-Zumar: 53] ("Say: O My servants who have been excessive against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah"), the verse. He stood by him and said: O servant of Allah, repeat the recitation of it. He repeated it for him, and then he sheathed his sword, and thereafter came repentant, until in the early morning he reached Medina. He performed the major ablution, then came to the mosque of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah's peace and blessing be upon him, and performed the morning prayer. Then he sat down beside Abū Hurayra amid his companions. When it grew light, the people recognized him and rose to seize him. He said: You have no way against me; I came repentant before you gained power over me! Abū Hurayra said: He is right. And Abū Hurayra took him by the hand until he came to Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam, during his rule over Medina in the time of Muʿāwiya, and said: This is ʿAlī, come repentant; you have no way against him, nor [right of] killing. He said: Then all of that was relinquished. He said: And ʿAlī went out as a repentant one, fighting in the way of Allah, by sea. They came upon the Byzantines, and they brought his ship close to one of their ships, and he threw himself upon the Byzantines in their ship. They fled from him to their other ship, which capsized with them and with him, and they all drowned together.
11890 - Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim related to me, saying: Abū Nuʿaym related to us, saying: Muṭarrif ibn Maʿqil related to us, saying: I heard ʿAṭāʾ say concerning a man who committed a theft and thereafter brought it [forward] repentant without having been seized — does a prescribed penalty (ḥadd) rest upon him? He said: No! Then he said: "except those who repented before you gained power over them," the verse.
11891 - Ibn al-Barqī related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Maryam related to us, saying: Nāfiʿ ibn Yazīd informed us, saying: Abū Ṣakhr related to me, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī — and on the authority of Abī Muʿāwiya, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr — both of whom said: If he comes repentant without having misappropriated property and without having shed blood, he is left alone. That is what Allah said: "except those who repented before you gained power over them" — He means thereby that he has not shed blood and has not misappropriated property.
* * *
Others said: Rather, what is intended by the exception therein is: the one repentant from his war against Allah and His Messenger and his striving for corruption on earth, after his joining, in his war, the territory of unbelief. But when his highway robbery and his war took place while he resided in the territory of Islam, and was situated amid the multitude of the community, then his repentance lifts nothing from him of the prescribed penalties (ḥudūd) of Allah, exalted and mighty is He, nor of the rights of the Muslims and the protected people (people with a covenant); rather, he is taken to task for that.
The mention of who said that:
11892 - ʿAlī ibn Sahl related to me, saying: Al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to us, saying: Ismāʿīl informed me, on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwa: that he informed him that they asked ʿUrwa about someone who committed highway robberies within Islam and in doing so committed offenses for which prescribed penalties (ḥudūd) apply, and thereafter came repentant. He said: His repentance is not accepted; if that were accepted from them, they would become emboldened in it, and it would be a great corruption. But if he were to flee to the enemy and thereafter come repentant, I would not see any punishment resting upon him.
* * *
And there is related from ʿUrwa the opposite of this saying, namely what:
11893 - ʿAlī related to me, saying: Al-Walīd related to us, saying: Someone who heard Hishām ibn ʿUrwa informed me, on the authority of ʿUrwa, he said: Upon him is carried out the prescribed penalty (ḥadd) from which he fled, and it is not permitted for anyone to grant him a safe-conduct — he means: the one who commits an offense for which a ḥadd applies, and thereafter flees and joins the unbelievers, and thereafter comes repentant.
* * *
Others said: If his highway robbery and his war took place in the territory of Islam, while he had no force of protection from a group (fiʾa) with which he could take refuge, and he thereafter came repentant before [there was] power over him, then his repentance lifts nothing from him of the punishment, nor of the rights of the people. And if his highway robbery and his war took place in the territory of Islam, or if he had joined the territory of unbelief — with the proviso that in all those cases he took refuge with a group that protected him against whoever sought him from the authority of the Muslims — and he thereafter came repentant before [there was] power over him, then his repentance lifts from him everything of the offenses he committed in the days of that highway robbery of his, except if he committed an offense for which a ḥadd applies, or he commanded the travel-companions to do something in which there was a punishment or a [duty of] compensation (ghurm) toward a Muslim or a protected person, while he did not take refuge with a group that protected him — then he is taken to task for what he committed of that while he was in that state, and his repentance does not lift that from him.
The mention of who said that:
11894 - ʿAlī ibn Sahl related to me, saying: Al-Walīd related to us, saying: Abū ʿAmr said: When a robber or a group of robbers cuts off the road and they strike what they strike of blood and properties, while they have no group (fiʾa) with which they take refuge, nor a force of protection (manʿa), and they enjoy no security except by entering amid the multitude of their community and the mass of their common folk, and he thereafter comes repentant before one gains power over him — then his repentance is not accepted, and his prescribed penalty (ḥadd) is carried out upon him, whatever it was.
11895 - ʿAlī related to me, saying: Al-Walīd related to us, saying: I mentioned to Abū ʿAmr the saying of ʿUrwa: "Upon him is carried out the prescribed penalty from which he fled, and it is not permitted for anyone to grant him a safe-conduct," and Abū ʿAmr said: If he flees from his offense in the territory of Islam, and an imam grants him a safe-conduct, then his safe-conduct is not valid. And if he joins the territory of war, and thereafter an imam requests [to grant] him a safe-conduct for his offenses, then the imam ought not to grant him a safe-conduct. And if the imam grants him a safe-conduct while he is unaware of his offenses, then he is safe. And if someone comes who claims him for blood or property, he is returned to his place of safety; and if he refuses to return, then he is safe and nothing is done to him. He said: And if the imam grants him a safe-conduct for his offenses while he knows them, then the imam is liable and the blood-money (ʿaql/diya) is obligatory upon him for the blood or property that he had struck, and he is sinful with respect to those prescribed penalties and bloodshed that he has neglected, and his affair is to Allah, exalted and mighty is He. He said: And Abū ʿAmr said: When he strikes that while he had a force of protection (manʿa) or a group (fiʾa) with which he took refuge, or he joined the territory of war and became an apostate from Islam, or persisted in it, and thereafter came repentant before one gained power over him, then his repentance is accepted, and he is pursued for none of his offenses that he committed in his war — except if something is found with him that still exists as such (in kind), that then being returned to its owner.
11896 - ʿAlī related to me, saying: Al-Walīd related to us, saying: Ibn Lahīʿa informed me, on the authority of Rabīʿa, he said: His repentance is accepted, and he is pursued for none of his offenses in his war, except if someone claims him for blood that he had struck in his time of peace before his war, for then retaliation (qiṣāṣ/qawad) is carried out upon him.
11897 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Maʿmar al-Raqqī related to us, saying: Al-Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtayba, he said: May Allah combat al-Ḥajjāj! Indeed, he had understanding of it! He granted a man a safe-conduct from his warfare, and said: Look whether he struck anything before his going out.
* * *
Others said: His repentance lifts from him the prescribed penalty (ḥadd) of Allah that had become obligatory upon him through his warfare, but it does not nullify the rights of the children of Adam (the people).
And among those who said that is al-Shāfiʿī.
11898 - That al-Rabīʿ related to us on his authority.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the most correct of these sayings concerning it, in my view, is the saying of whoever said: The repentance of the warrior (highway robber) who makes himself inviolable, by himself or by a group with him, before [there is] power over him, lifts from him the liabilities of this world that rested upon him in the days of his war and highway robbery — of the prescribed penalties (ḥudūd) of Allah, obligatory compensation (ghurm), retaliatory killing (qawad), and retaliation (qiṣāṣ) — except what is still in his hand of the properties of the Muslims and the protected people as such (in kind), for that is returned to its owners. This is on the basis of the consensus (ijmāʿ) of all that this is the ruling concerning the inviolable-making group that wages war against Allah and His Messenger and strives for corruption on earth by way of apostasy (ridda) from Islam. Likewise, this ruling applies to every inviolable-making one who strives for corruption on earth, whether they were a group or a single individual.
As for the one, however, who conceals himself with his theft, and who acts as a robber by way of surprising whom he robs, and the one who bares the weapon in isolation against a portion of the travelers, while at the moment of pursuit he is unable to make himself inviolable — for him the ruling of Allah, whether he repents or not, is in force, and he is taken to task for the rights of whoever's property he took, or whose guardian (walī) he struck with blood or treachery; and his repentance is a matter between him and Allah, exalted and mighty is He. This is by analogy with the consensus of all that if he were to strike something of that while he was at peace with the Muslims, and thereafter turned to war against them, his war against them would not lift any right from him — neither for Allah, mighty is His mention, nor for a human being. Likewise is his ruling when he strikes that in isolation or by stealth, while he does not make himself inviolable by himself against the authority should it seek him, and he has no group (fiʾa) with which he can take refuge that protects him.
And in His saying "except those who repented before you gained power over them" there is a clear proof for whoever has been granted the understanding of it, that the ruling that Allah, exalted and mighty is He, mentioned concerning the warriors (highway robbers) applies to the Muslims and the protected people (people with a covenant), not to the polytheists (mushrikīn) who have declared war on the Muslims. That is because, if this were a ruling concerning the warring ones among the polytheists, not concerning the Muslims and not concerning their protected people, it would be necessary that their Islam — when they turn to Islam or repent after we gained power over them — would not lift from them what was due upon them before their Islam and their repentance of killing, and what is due to the Muslims with respect to the warring ones among the polytheists. And in the consensus of the Muslims that the Islam of the warring polytheist lifts from him, after the power of the Muslims over him, what his Islam would have lifted from him before the power over him — in that lies an indication that the correct saying concerning it is the saying of whoever said: "By the verse concerning the warriors (highway robbers) in this place are intended the highway robbers among the people of the religious community or the dhimma, not those outside of them among the warring polytheists."
* * *
And as for His saying "then know that Allah is Forgiving, Merciful," the meaning of it is: then know, O believers, that Allah does not call to account whoever repents among the warring ones against Allah and His Messenger, the strivers for corruption on earth, and others, for his sins, but rather forgives him and covers them for him, and does not disgrace him thereby through punishment in this world and in the Hereafter — merciful toward him in His forgiveness to him, and His refraining from the punishment for it.
