And when it was from the foundation of al-Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on him, that the exception that follows the continuous sentences connected by 'wa' returns to all, whether they are of the same kind or more, except if a contextual evidence prevents it. He returned the exception here to the act of sin and rejected the testimony without the ruling of flogging. This is because part of the completeness of repentance is submission to the punishment and seeking its absolution. And due to the contextual evidence of it being a right of a human being, which does not fall away with repentance, in His saying, the Most High: "Except for those who repent," meaning those who return from what they have fallen into of slander and others, and they regret it and are determined not to return, as He clarified in al-Baqarah in His saying, the Most High: "Except for those who repent, reform, and clarify" [al-Baqarah: 160]. And he indicated that flogging does not fall away with repentance by his saying, referring to the inclusion of the neighbor, that its acceptance does not depend on its exhausting the coming time: "After that," meaning the matter that necessitated their distancing, which is the accusation (p-216) and flogging. For indeed, repentance does not change the ruling of the accuser regarding flogging, but it changes it in the rejection of the testimony and what resulted from it, which is the act of sin. And he indicated the conditions of repentance by His saying: "And reform," meaning after repentance, with the passage of a period in which good condition is presumed. This is a Sunnah by which the condition of the repentant is considered through the four seasons that reveal the natures.

And when their exception from the rejection of testimony and the act of sin was made, the implication was: So accept their testimony and do not describe them with sin. He justified it by His saying: "For indeed, Allah," meaning the One who has the attributes of perfection, "is Forgiving," meaning He conceals for them what they have committed due to their returning from it, "and Merciful," meaning He acts towards them with the honor of the merciful towards the one being shown mercy in accepting the testimony.