Surah 9. Al-Tawba, Ayah 43

All the commentators agree in that this phrase, although expressed in the form of an invocation has the meaning of a statement - "God pardons thee" or "has pardoned thee" - absolving the Prophet of any moral responsibility for his mistaken, but humanly understandable, acceptance of equivocal pleas on the part of those who wished to be excused from participating in the campaign. To me it seems that this statement of "absolution" was primarily intended to free the Prophet from any self-reproach for his too-great liberality in this respect. (It should be borne in mind that this part of At-Tawbah was revealed during or immediately after the expedition.)

Literally, "Allah give thee forgiveness!" But there is no question of fault here, and Imam Razi understands the expression to mean an exclamation,-as one might say in English, "God bless you!" In Shakespeare "God save you!" is a simple friendly greeting, without any question of danger: e.g., in "Much Ado about Nothing." iii. 2, 82. Note that in 0. iii. 152, last clause, "forgiveness" is put in juxtaposition to "grace" as having closely allied meanings. What the Holy Prophet had done in the Tabuk expedition was that he had been granting exemptions which may appear from a military point of view too liberal. He was not actuated by motives of kindness as well as policy:- kindness, because, in the urgency of the moment he did not wish any one who had a real excuse to be refused exemption: and policy, because, if any one did not come with hearty good-will, he would be a burden instead of a help to the army. The policy was justified, because in fact 30,000 men or more followed him. But that did not in any way justify the slackers, and in a review of the position, the slackers and hypocrites are justly condemned.