And when He clarified that the punishment is the recompense for the disbelievers, He clarified that He repents upon whomever He wills from them. This includes everyone who is known to have the capacity for faith, even if he is severe in describing disbelief. So He said, adding to: ﴿And He punished﴾ [At-Tawbah: 26] ﴿Then Allah will repent﴾, meaning: the One who has complete knowledge and power. And since there is no one whose repentance encompasses the time of distance, He included the neighbor and said: ﴿After that﴾, meaning: the great punishment ﴿upon whomever He wills﴾, meaning: He guides him to Islam and forgives him all that has passed of sins. ﴿And Allah﴾, meaning: the One who has the attributes of perfection, ﴿is Forgiving and Merciful﴾, meaning: He erases sins and is greatly generous to whoever repents. In this, there is an indication that He made this event for His wisdom, which necessitated linking causes to their effects - as a means for the Islam of those who witnessed it from the disbelievers of Quraysh and others among those whose hearts were softened by what the Prophet ﷺ distributed among them of the spoils of Hawazin and by what they saw of the honor of Islam and its elevation. Thus, there was in that an encouragement for them through wealth and a deterrence through the might of fighting, and for the Islam of the delegation of Hawazin due to what they experienced of defeat and what they witnessed of the great victory for the Prophet ﷺ. And for the Islam of others among the Arabs because each of them knew from this event that they were weaker in support and fewer in number. All of this was a mercy from Him, glorified and exalted is He, for them and kindness to them. And all of that was as He indicated, glorified is He, so the freed ones embraced Islam and their Islam was good. The delegation of Hawazin came and asked the Prophet ﷺ to compensate them by returning what was taken from them. He said to them: "I delayed with you, and when you were slow, I distributed among the people their spoils. So choose: wealth or captives!" They chose the captives, so he interceded for them with the people, and they responded to him, and he returned to them their children and women, a mercy from Him for them. And the Arabs humbled themselves for that, so they entered the religion in crowds. And He concluded this verse with forgiveness and mercy, which is most appropriate for the context of repentance, while it did not shift to conclude the first with: ﴿All-Knowing, Wise﴾ [At-Tawbah: 15] except for what it established by making the "or" in ﴿Or do you think﴾ [At-Tawbah: 16] equivalent to the hamzah. And Allah knows best.