And when He, glorified and exalted is He, conveyed this good news in the warning, He caused His saying: ﴿So eat from what you have gained﴾ to be understood as: from the ransom and others, while it is ﴿lawful﴾, meaning: there is no sin or blame in it from My side, ﴿pure﴾, meaning: delicious for you and suitable for your nature. This is if it is with the conditions that I have established for you, which are the absence of treachery and betrayal in any way, and the intense desire leading to what is not appropriate from dispute and others. That is in what I have previously conveyed to you. ﴿And fear Allah﴾, meaning: the One who has all the attributes of perfection in all of that, so do not be excessive, nor dispute, and do not proceed except on what the Messenger ﷺ permits for you. ﴿Indeed, Allah﴾, meaning: the One characterized by majesty and honor, ﴿is Forgiving﴾, meaning: for whoever knows in his heart that he is among the people of piety, ﴿Merciful﴾, meaning: to him. For the sake of what He knows in your hearts of goodness, He forgave you and did not punish you for your hastiness towards the ransom of one whom the Messenger ﷺ did not command you to ransom without waiting for his permission. And He had mercy on you, so He did good to you and made the spoils lawful for you. (p-333) Look at His saying, the Most High: ﴿If you fear Allah, He will make for you a criterion and will remove from you your misdeeds and will forgive you﴾ [Al-Anfal: 29]. You will recognize the goodness of the reasoning of the command with piety with forgiveness and mercy. It may also be that it is a reason for eating, meaning: eat; for indeed Allah has forgiven you what He reprimanded you for. The benefit of the command with piety is the warning against returning, relying on the vastness of patience. Also, there has previously been a threat and forgiveness, so it was appropriate to indicate to them that the reason for forgiveness is piety. Thus, the translation of that is that when He terrified them with the touch of punishment at the taking of the ransom, had it not been for the prior decree, He encouraged them that whenever He turned them away from His side, the repelling sin would return them to Him, the driving force of piety would bring them back to Him, and He would cover them with the cloak of forgiveness and mercy.