The Quran

سَيَحلِفونَ بِاللَّهِ لَكُم إِذَا انقَلَبتُم إِلَيهِم لِتُعرِضوا عَنهُم ۖ فَأَعرِضوا عَنهُم ۖ إِنَّهُم رِجسٌ ۖ وَمَأواهُم جَهَنَّمُ جَزاءً بِما كانوا يَكسِبونَ

Muhammad Asad

When you will have returned to them, [O believers,] they will swear to you by God, [repeating their excuses,] with a view to your letting them be.¹ Let them be, then: behold, they are loathsome, and hell is their goal in recompense for what they were wont to do.

Sc., "and not punishing them". As a matter of fact, their fears were unfounded, since, on his return from Tabuk, the Prophet took no punitive action against any of those who had failed to follow him on his campaign.