And when He praised - glorified and exalted is He - their actions; He followed it with their saying; and He said: ﴿And it was not﴾; meaning: anything from the saying; ﴿Their saying﴾; meaning: because of that matter which overwhelmed them; ﴿Except that they said﴾; meaning: while they were striving to support the religion of Allah; attributing the defeat to themselves; by engaging in its causes ﴿Our Lord, forgive us our sins﴾; meaning: those for which we deserved the defeat; ﴿And our excess in our matter﴾; belittling themselves; so despite being God-fearing; striving; they attributed what befell them to their sins; so do what they did; to attain from honor what they attained; as He indicated to you - glorified and exalted is He - regarding that; before beginning to recount the story; when He described the God-fearing; from His saying: ﴿Or did they wrong themselves? They remembered Allah and sought forgiveness for their sins﴾ [Aal 'Imran: 135] (p-88) And when they called for the removal of what necessitated the defeat; they called for the fruit of the removal; and they said: ﴿And make firm our feet﴾; indicating that fear is one of the results of sin; and steadfastness is one of the fruits of obedience – "You only fight people by your deeds" - then they indicated that their fighting them is only for Allah; not for any share of the desires of the self at all; by saying: ﴿And grant us victory over the disbelieving people﴾.