2/159-160 — The making good of concealment
"Those who conceal the clear proofs and the guidance We have sent down, after We have made them clear to people in the Book — those God curses… Except those who repent, put things right and make clear."
An addition comes to the subject of "concealing knowledge" treated at verses 75-79: what makes it good?
1. Repentance — turning back (inward) 2. Putting right — correcting (conduct) 3. Bayān — making clear (turned to the public)
The third is a condition laid down specifically for this kind of sin. The making good of concealment is not to give up concealing; it is to say it openly. For although concealment looks like an inaction, its result is an action: a false conviction has formed on the other side, and that conviction is not corrected by silence.
This principle is general: someone who has spread a piece of false information removes his responsibility not by keeping silent but by correcting it with the same reach.