While the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, was walking during the Battle of Tabuk, a group of hypocrites was walking in front of him. They said: 'Look at this man who wants to conquer the palaces of Ash-Sham and its fortresses; it is impossible, impossible!' So Allah informed His Prophet, peace be upon him, about that. He said: 'Stop the caravan for me.' He went to them and said: 'You said such and such.' They replied: 'O Messenger of Allah, by Allah, we were not in anything regarding your matter or the matter of your companions, but we were in something that the caravan was discussing, so that some of us could shorten the journey.' Did you mock Allah and His signs and His Messenger? He did not pay attention to their excuse because they were lying in it. They made it seem as if they were admitting to their mockery, and that it was present among them, until they were reproached for their mistakes in the act of mockery. The one who is mocked is made to follow the letter of the report, and that is only correct after the mockery has occurred and been established. Do not excuse yourselves; do not busy yourselves with your false excuses, for they will not benefit you after your secret has been revealed. You have certainly disbelieved; your disbelief has appeared through your mockery after your faith. As for your showing of faith, if We pardon a group of you for their initiating repentance and their sincerity in faith after hypocrisy, We will punish a group because they were criminals, persisting in hypocrisy, unrepentant from it. Or if We pardon a group of you who did not harm the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and did not mock, then We will not punish them immediately. We punish immediately a group because they were criminals who harmed the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and mocked. Mujahid read: 'If We pardon a group' in the passive form with feminine agreement, while the correct form is masculine, because the subject is the circumstance, as you say: 'He traveled with the animal,' and you do not say: 'I traveled with the animal.' However, he went with the meaning, as if it were said: 'If You have mercy on a group.' He therefore feminized it, which is strange. The good reading of the public is: 'If He pardons a group,' in the masculine. And 'He punishes a group,' in the feminine. And it was read: 'If He pardons a group, He punishes a group,' in the active form, which is Allah, the Exalted.