﴿ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ تَوَلَّوْا۟ مِنكُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْتَقَى ٱلْجَمْعَانِ إِنَّمَا ٱسْتَزَلَّهُمُ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ بِبَعْضِ مَا كَسَبُوا۟ ۖ وَلَقَدْ عَفَا ٱللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌ حَلِيمٌۭ ﴾

“Behold, as for those of you who turned away [from their duty] on the day when the two hosts met in battle - Satan caused them to stumble only by means of something that they [themselves] had done. But now God has effaced this sin of theirs: verily, God is much-forgiving, forbearing.”

[Satan] made them slip, that is, he asked them to slip and called them to do so, the slip being the turning away [from the battle], through some of what they had earned, in the way of sins. For Satan is only able to whisper to people and to fulfil his task when there is an opportunity through the smallest darkness in the heart resulting from a sin or a motion of the soul, as they say: the sin that follows a sin is the punishment of the former [sin]; but God pardoned them, by their apology and their remorse;