al-Naḥl 16:119

Thumma inna rabbaka lilladhīna ʿamilu'l-sūʾa bi-jahālatin thumma tābū min baʿdi dhālika wa aṣlaḥū inna rabbaka min baʿdihā la-ghafūrun raḥīm

"Then your Lord — for those who did evil in ignorance, then repented after that and set things right: your Lord after all that is surely most forgiving, most merciful."

The sentence stands on the same skeleton as the hundred and tenth verse, and this is a repetition verifiable within the sūra:

The same pattern, for two different groups. And I record this as my own reading, my ground being this symmetry: the first group are those who were wronged and emigrated, the second those who did evil and repented. The sūra meets both with the same sentence.

And repentance is not named alone; a second verb is added beside it: wa aṣlaḥū.

This structure was treated at al-Shūrā, 42/40, and it was recorded there:

"Pardon on its own may be a withdrawal — a man does not take his right, he cuts the relation, he goes away. Technically that is pardon, but it does not repair what was broken. The condition of iṣlāḥ ties pardon to a repair."

The same structure works here for repentance, and I give it as an observation: repentance too may be a withdrawal on its own. The condition of iṣlāḥ ties it to a repair.

And the root ص-ل-ح was treated at al-Ḥujurāt, 49/9-10: to make what has been spoiled fit for use again. I rely on that treatment.

بِجَهَٰلَة — two explanations of the word are transmitted:

The second explanation rests on the root's use in Arabic: jahl is the opposite of forbearance (ḥilm) as much as it is the opposite of knowledge. Both explanations are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.