They are the ones who persisted in disbelief and hindered you from the Sacred Mosque, preventing the sacrificial animals from reaching their destination.¹ ˹We would have let you march through Mecca,˺ had there not been believing men and women, unknown to you. You might have trampled them underfoot, incurring guilt for ˹what you did to˺ them unknowingly. That was so Allah may admit into His mercy whoever He wills.² Had those ˹unknown˺ believers stood apart, We would have certainly inflicted a painful punishment on the disbelievers.

They are the ones who disbelieved (in the Oneness of Allâh - Islâmic Monotheism) and hindered you from Al-Masjid-al-Harâm (at Makkah) and detained the sacrificial animals from reaching their place of sacrifice. Had there not been believing men and believing women whom you did not know, that you may kill them and on whose account a sin would have been committed by you without (your) knowledge, that Allâh might bring into His Mercy whom He wills - if they (the believers and the disbelievers) had been apart, We verily would have punished those of them who disbelieved with painful torment.