10وَلَولا فَضلُ اللَّهِ عَلَيكُم وَرَحمَتُهُ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ تَوّابٌ حَكيمٌMuhammad AsadAND WERE it not for God's favour upon you, [O man,] and His grace, and that God is a wise acceptor of repentance...!1This sentence, which introduces the section dealing with the condemnation of all unfounded or unproven accusations of unchastity - as well as the similar sentence which closes it in verse 20 - is deliberately left incomplete, leaving it to man to imagine what would have happened to individual lives and to society if God had not ordained all the above-mentioned legal and moral safeguards against possibly false accusations, or if He had made a proof of adultery dependent on mere circumstantial evidence. This idea is further elaborated in verses 14-15.