Concerning the objective of this punishment...

Concerning the objective of this punishment, some of the commentators have said that its purpose is the same sharp struck that these obstinate disbelievers received in the Battle of Badr, the first Battle of Muslims against pagans, in which seventy chiefs of the pagans were killed and seventy persons of them were taken captives.

There is also another probability that the purpose of it is the common painful punishment, but at last it was removed because of the existence of the Prophet (S) among them who was: “…a Mercy for (all) the worlds” [^1] And Surah Al-’Anfal, No. 8, verse 33 is an evidence upon this meaning. It says: “But Allah is not to punish them while you are among them…” The application of the…