Allah Most High has related to us the accounts of the prophets’ repentance so that we may follow their example in repenting. As for what He, glorified be He, has mentioned concerning following their example in deeds they were allowed to continue—deeds they were neither forbidden to perform nor repented of—this is what is prescribed. But deeds they were forbidden to perform and repented of are no less excluded from emulation than their abrogated practices. If following their example ceases with regard to what they were commanded or permitted to do once it is abrogated, then this applies all the more to what they were not commanded to do.

Furthermore, regarding His words:

“And they thought that they had been lied to.”

They may, through their own exercise of judgment, have supposed that what was promised entailed something it did not, only for matters to turn out otherwise. This is possible for them, as we shall explain. Thus, if someone supposes that what was promised entails something it does not, and matters then turn out otherwise, he thinks that it was a lie. Its falsity arose from his supposing that the report entailed something it did not necessarily entail. As for doubting what he knows Allah has communicated, this does not occur. We shall clarify this, if Allah Most High wills.

It should also be understood that He, glorified be He, mentions two things here: first, the messengers’ loss of hope; and second, their thinking that they had been lied to. We have already discussed the expression “thought.” As for the expression istay’asū (“lost hope”), He, glorified be He, says:

“Until, when the messengers had lost hope.”

He did not say ya’isa al-rusul (“the messengers despaired”), nor did He mention what they had lost hope of. He also uses this expression in this surah:

“When they had lost hope of him, they withdrew to confer privately. Their eldest said,