qul lilladhīna kafarū in yantahū yugh'far lahum mā qad salafa wa-in yaʿūdū faqad maḍat sunnatu l-awalīna
Translation
Say to those who have disbelieved [that] if they cease, what has previously occurred will be forgiven for them. But if they return [to hostility] - then the precedent of the former [rebellious] peoples has already taken place.445
Notes
[445] This is a warning that punishment is always the result of rebellion against Allāh and His messengers.
Verse 38 of Surah Al-Anfal (8:38), a Medinan surah, is in juz 9, on page 181 of the mushaf. Read it in Arabic with its transliteration, translations and tafsir, and listen to it recited by 72 reciters.
Listen to verse 38 of Surah Al-Anfal
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Tafsir of verse 38
Al-Mukhtasar
Say, O Messenger, to those of your people who disbelieve in Allah and His Messenger that if they stop disbelieving in Allah and His Messenger and preventing the believers from Allah’s path, then Allah will forgive their past sins, because Islam wipes out what is before it; but if they return to their disbelief, then Allah’s way of dealing with earlier people has already come as a warning: when they rejected and continued in their disbelief, He swiftly punished them.
Say to those who disbelieve that if they desist21, their past will be forgiven, but if they persist, then they have a precedent in those who have passed before them.
Notes
[21] From disbelief and disobedience.
Say to those who have disbelieved, if they cease (from disbelief), their past will be forgiven. But if they return (thereto), then the examples of those (punished) before them have already preceded (as a warning).
Tell those who disbelieve that if they cease (from persecution of believers) that which is past will be forgiven them; but if they return (thereto) then the example of the men of old hath already gone (before them, for a warning).
Say to the Unbelievers, if (now) they desist (from Unbelief), their past would be forgiven them; but if they persist, the punishment of those before them is already (a matter of warning for them).
Say to those who disbelieve, if they desist, that which is past shall be forgiven to them; and if they return, then what happened to the ancients has already passed.
Say to the ones who have disbelieved, in case they refrain, whatever has already passed will be forgiven them; and in case they go back, then the enactment (for) the earliest (people) has already gone by.
Ibn Shumāsah al-Mahri reported: We went to ‘Amr ibn al-Āas (may Allah be pleased with him) when he was on his death bed. He wept for long and turned his face to the wall. His son kept saying: "O Father, didn't the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) give you the glad…
And [mention, O Muḥammad], the Day We will gather them all together - then We will say to those who associated others with Allāh, "[Remain in] your place, you and your 'partners.'" Then We will separate them, and their "partners" will say, "You did not used to worship us,
Allāh would not leave the believers in that [state] you are in [presently] until He separates the evil from the good. Nor would Allāh reveal to you the unseen. But [instead], Allāh chooses of His messengers whom He wills, so believe in Allāh and His messengers. And if you believe and fear Him, then for you is a great reward.
Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while Allāh has not yet made evident those of you who fight in His cause and made evident those who are steadfast?
