His saying - glorified and exalted is He -: "So whoever repents after his wrongdoing and reforms, then indeed Allah will accept his repentance. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." "Do you not know that to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth? He punishes whom He wills and forgives whom He wills. And Allah is over all things competent." "O Messenger, let not those grieve you who race each other into disbelief from among those who say, 'We have believed' with their mouths, but their hearts have not believed; and from among the Jews are some who listen eagerly to falsehood, listening to another people who have not come to you." The meaning according to the majority of the people of knowledge is that whoever repents from theft and regrets what has passed; and refrains in the future; and reforms - by returning the wrongs if he is able to do so; and if not, then by spending it in the way of Allah - and he also reforms in all his other actions; and he rises above; then indeed Allah will accept his repentance; and He will remove from him the ruling of theft between him and Allah, glorified and exalted is He; and he is in the will of Allah, hoping for the promise; and repentance does not remove from him the ruling of this world of cutting, if he confesses; or if he is witnessed against; and Mujahid said: Repentance and reform is that the punishment is established upon him. Al-Qadi Abu Muhammad - may Allah have mercy on him - said: And this is a strictness; and Allah has made for exiting from sins two doors; one of them is the punishment; and the other is repentance; and Al-Shafi'i said: If the thief repents; and before the judge takes him; then his repentance removes from him the ruling of cutting, by analogy to the repentance of the highway robber. And His saying: "Do you not know"; the verse; is a stopping and a reminder of the reason that necessitates the enforcement of these commands against the highway robbers; and theft; and informing about this punishment for some and repentance for others; and it is His dominion, glorified and exalted is He, over all things; so by right of ownership; there is no one to overturn His ruling; nor to object to it. And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "O Messenger"; the verse; is a consolation for the Prophet - blessings and peace be upon him -; and a strengthening for his soul because of what he was facing from the factions of the hypocrites; and the Children of Israel; and the meaning is: We have promised you victory and triumph over them; so let not what occurs from them during their remaining time grieve you. And some of the reciters read: "let not grieve you"; with a fatha on the ya and a damma on the zay; the Arabs say: "the man grieved"; with a kasra on the zay; and "I grieved him"; with a fatha on it; and some of the reciters read: "let not grieve you"; with a damma on the ya and a kasra on the zay; because among the Arabs are those who say: "I made the man grieve"; meaning: "I grieved him"; and made him one who has grief; and the people read: "they race"; and Al-Hurri the grammarian read: "they hasten"; without an alif; and the meaning of racing into disbelief is: hastening to support it; and establishing its proofs; and striving to extinguish Islam by it. And the interpreters differed in the arrangement of the meaning of the verse; and in who is meant by His saying: "with their mouths"; and in the reason for the revelation of the verse; as for its reason, it has been narrated from Abu Huraira - may Allah be pleased with him -; and Ibn Abbas - may Allah be pleased with them both -; and a group that they said: This verse was revealed because of the stoning.

The judge Abu Muhammad - may Allah have mercy on him - said: This is because a Jewish man committed adultery with a Jewish woman; and in the Torah, the punishment for adulterers is stoning; and the Children of Israel had changed that; and they replaced it with flogging and branding the faces; because they did not carry out the stoning on their nobles; but they imposed it on their lesser ones in terms of severity; they found that repugnant; and they introduced a ruling that equated the noble with the commoner; so when the Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him - migrated to Medina, a man from the Jews committed adultery with a woman; it was narrated that this occurred in Medina; and it was narrated that it happened outside of Medina among the Jews of Hijaz; and they sent to the Jews of Medina; and to their allies among the hypocrites to ask the Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him - about the incident; and they hoped that he would agree with them on flogging and branding; so that their matter would become more severe by that; so when the Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him - was asked about that, he stood up with a group of his companions to the house of (p-166) the school; and he gathered the scholars there; and he asked them about what was in the Torah; they said: We do not find in it the stoning; so the Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him - said: 'Indeed, it contains the stoning; so spread it'; and it was spread; and one of them placed his hand on the verse of stoning; and Abdullah ibn Salam said: Raise your hand; so he raised his hand and there was the verse of stoning; so the Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him - ruled in it with stoning; and he enforced it.

The judge Abu Muhammad - may Allah have mercy on him - said: In this hadith, there are differing words; and many narrations; among them is that it was narrated that the Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him - passed by a Jewish man and a Jewish woman who had committed adultery; and they had been flogged and branded; so he said: 'Is this your law, O assembly of Jews?' They said: Yes; so he said: 'No'; then he walked to the house of the school; and he exposed them; and he ruled in those two cases with stoning; and he said: 'I will surely be the first to revive the ruling of the Torah when they have killed it.'

And it was narrated that the two adulterers were not in Medina; and that the Jews of Fadak were the ones who said to the Jews of Medina: Ask Muhammad; if he rules for you with what we are upon of flogging and branding; then take him; and if he rules for you with stoning, beware of the stoning; this was said by Al-Sha'bi and others; and Qatadah ibn Di'ama and others said: The reason for the verse: The Jews mentioned that the Banu Nadir had attacked the Banu Qurayzah; so if a Nadirite killed a Qurayzi, he was killed for it; and if a Nadirite killed a Qurayzi, he was given the blood money.

And it was said: The blood money for the Qurayzi was half the blood money of the Nadirite; so when the Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him - came to Medina, the Qurayzah sought equality; since they were cousins; both tracing back to a common ancestor; and they sought the ruling from the Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him -; so the Nadir said to one another: If he rules by what we were upon, then take him; otherwise, beware.

(p-167) The judge Abu Muhammad - may Allah have mercy on him - said: And all these incidents occurred; and others occurred; that are similar to them; and it is good that the cause of them is the disgrace of the Jews in their distortion of the words; and their harassment of the religion; and the narrations regarding this are many and varied.

And it has been reported in some chains in the hadith of Abu Huraira that he said - in the story of stoning -: The Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him - went to their schoolhouse; and we went with him; and this implies that the matter was at the end of the Prophet's - blessings and peace be upon him - time; because Abu Huraira embraced Islam in the year of Khaybar; at the end of the sixth year of the Hijra; and Banu Nadir had been expelled; and Banu Qurayza and Quraysh had been killed; and the Jews in Medina were nothing; so how could they have had a schoolhouse at that time? Or if they had a house in a state of humiliation; did the Prophet - blessings and peace be upon him - need - with the emergence of his religion - to argue with them that argument? And the apparent meaning of the hadith of the schoolhouse is that it was in the early period of the Hijra; unless it is that this was from the Prophet - blessings and peace be upon him - with the strength of his words; in that he intended to remove their judgment from the hands of their scholars with evidence against them from their own book; and for that reason he went to their schoolhouse; with his power over them; and this to me seems unlikely; because they were not at that time causing him grief; nor did they have a state that would comfort him - blessings and peace be upon him.

As for the disagreement of the people regarding who is meant by His saying: ﴿Those who hasten to disbelief among those who said, 'We have believed' with their mouths but their hearts have not believed﴾; Al-Suddi said: It was revealed about a man from the Ansar; they claimed that he was Abu Lubabah ibn Abdul Mundhir; Banu Qurayza pointed to him on the day of their siege: What is the matter? And why do we descend from the judgment? So he indicated to his throat that it meant slaughter.

The judge Abu Muhammad - may Allah have mercy on him - said: And this is weak; and Abu Lubabah is among the virtuous companions; and even if he indicated with that indication, he said: 'By Allah, my feet did not move until I knew that I had betrayed Allah and His Messenger'; then he came to the Prophet's mosque - blessings and peace be upon him -; and he tied himself to a pillar from the pillars of the mosque; and he swore that he would not leave like that until Allah the Exalted repented for him; and the Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him - was pleased with him; for that indication was a slip from him; it was carried by (p-168) compassion for a people with whom he had an old affection and participation; may Allah be pleased with him; and with all the companions.

And Al-Sha'bi and others said: The verse was revealed about a group of Jews; they wanted to ask the Prophet - blessings and peace be upon him - about a matter of a man among them who killed another; so they tasked a man from the Muslims with the question; and they said: If he rules with blood money, we accept his saying; and if he rules with death, we do not accept.

The judge Abu Muhammad - may Allah have mercy on him - said: And this is similar to what has been mentioned previously from Qatadah regarding the matter of killing the Nadir and Qurayzah.

And Abdullah ibn Kathir; and Mujahid; and others said: His saying, the Exalted, "From those who said, 'We believe' with their mouths, but their hearts do not believe"; it is intended by this the hypocrites; and His saying thereafter: "Eager listeners to falsehood, eager listeners to another people"; it is intended by this the Jews.

As for the arrangement of the meaning of the verse according to these statements, it is possible that the meaning is: "O Messenger, do not let the hasteners in disbelief from the hypocrites and the Jews sadden you"; and His saying: "Eager listeners"; is a news of an implied beginning.

It is possible that the meaning is: "Do not let the hasteners in disbelief from the Jews sadden you"; and He described them as having said: "We believe with their mouths, but their hearts do not believe"; as a binding upon them; due to the fact that they distorted their Torah; and changed its rulings; so they say with their mouths: "We are believers in the Torah"; and in Moses; while their hearts are not believing; due to the fact that they changed it; and denied what is in it regarding the prophethood of Muhammad - blessings and peace be upon him -; and other than that; of what is disbelief from them; and this interpretation is supported by His saying thereafter: "And those are not believers" [Al-Ma'idah: 43]; and according to this interpretation, His saying: "And from those who were Jews"; as if He said: "And among them"; but He explicitly mentioned the Jews; due to the fact that the listening group is different from the group that changes the Torah knowingly.

And the majority of the people read: "Eager listeners"; and Al-Nahhas read: "Eager listeners"; and my view regarding it is: it is in the accusative case due to blame; according to the arrangement of one who says: "Do not let the hasteners from these sadden you; eager listeners"; and as for the meaning in His saying: "Eager listeners to falsehood" it is possible that it is a description of the hypocrites; and of the Children of Israel; because all of them hear the falsehood; some from others; and they accept it; and that is why the phrase of their listening came in the form of exaggeration; as the intended meaning is that they accept and seek more of that which is heard; and His saying, the Exalted: "to falsehood"; it is possible that He means: "Eager listeners to falsehood"; and it is possible that He means: "Eager listeners to your words in order to be against you; and they convey your speech; and they increase with the word its multiples of falsehood"; and Al-Hasan; and Isa ibn Umar read: "to the lie"; with the 'kaf' broken; and the 'dhal' silent.

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "Eavesdroppers for another people"; it is possible that He means: they listen to them. Al-Tabari mentioned from Jabir that the intended meaning of the other people is the Jews of Fadak. It was said: the Jews of Khaybar; and it was said: the people of the two adulterers; and it was said: the people of dispute regarding killing and the blood money. These other people are described as having not come to the Prophet - blessings and peace be upon him -; and it is possible that it means: "Eavesdroppers for a people"; meaning: spies who secretly listen to the words, to convey them to another people. This is something that can be attributed to the hypocrites and the Jews of the city. It was said to Sufyan ibn Uyaynah: Is there mention of the spy in the Book of Allah - Mighty and Majestic? He said: Yes; and he recited this verse: "Eavesdroppers for another people."