58 Preface وَإِذ قُلنَا ادخُلوا هٰذِهِ القَريَةَ فَكُلوا مِنها حَيثُ شِئتُم رَغَدًا وَادخُلُوا البابَ سُجَّدًا وَقولوا حِطَّةٌ نَغفِر لَكُم خَطاياكُم ۚ وَسَنَزيدُ المُحسِنينَAli Quli QaraiAnd when We said, ‘Enter this town,1 and eat thereof freely whencesoever you wish, and enter prostrating at the gate, and say, “Relieve [us of the burden of our sins],”2 that We may forgive your iniquities, and soon We will enhance the virtuous.’ This city, according to tradition (see Tafsīr al-Imām al-ʿAskarī), was Arīḥāʾ or Jericho (or Jerusalem, according to some commentators), an ancient city of Palestine near the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. A stronghold commanding the valley of the lower Jordan River, it was captured and destroyed by Joshua forty years later.Or ‘[We beseech] forgiveness [for our sins].’