How can repentance be withheld from the hypocrites mentioned in the verse (And among them are those who made a covenant with Allah), and their repentance be unacceptable, even though the sun has not risen from the west and their souls have not yet reached their throats, and how can this be reconciled with His saying, the Almighty: (Indeed, Allah forgives all sins), and His saying: (Except for those who repent, amend their ways, hold fast to Allah, and dedicate their religion sincerely to Allah—those will be with the believers. And Allah will grant the believers a great reward)?

The verse does not present a contradiction. It states that Allah has sealed the hearts of the hypocrites due to their hypocrisy, and He has perpetuated their hypocrisy until the Day of Judgment, which indicates that they met Allah as hypocrites, unrepentant. Allah abandoned them and did not grant them success in repenting at all. And whoever Allah overtakes with His mercy and repents, Allah accepts his repentance, no matter how great his sin. Just as Allah prevented Iblis from repenting, so he never repented at all, similarly these hypocrites. Therefore, the story narrated about Tha'labah ibn Hatib is weak in both its chain of transmission and its content, because it claims that he repented but his repentance was not accepted, and this contradicts the definitive texts which stipulate the acceptance of the repentance of every penitent.