( قل للذين كفروا إن ينتهوا ) عن الشرك ( يغفر لهم ما قد سلف ) أي : ما مضى من ذنوبهم قبل الإسلام ، ( وإن يعودوا فقد مضت سنة الأولين ) في نصر الله أنبياءه وإهلاك أعدائه . قال يحيى بن معاذ الرازي : توحيد لم يعجز عن هدم ما قبله من كفر ، أرجو أن لا يعجز عن هدم ما بعده من ذنب .
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.