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Suras and narratives 3 / 8
Every order to fight has its cause and its limit
In the Qur'an, no order to fight is given on its own. In the neighbouring sentences, the text always gives its cause (broken oaths, a first aggression, fighting suffered) and its limit or exception (a pact kept, peace offered, cessation of hostilities, reciprocity). To read an order without its frame is to make it say what the text does not say.
The observation arose from sura 9, then was checked in the other passages on fighting:
- 9:4-13: the exception of the pact kept (« إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ عَٰهَدتُّم … ثُمَّ لَمْ يَنقُصُوكُمْ شَيْـًۭٔا », "except those … who then did not fail you in anything"); protection for whoever asks it (9:6); "as long as they are upright toward you" (9:7); broken oaths and the first aggression (9:12-13);
- 2:190-193: « وَقَٰتِلُوا۟ … ٱلَّذِينَ يُقَٰتِلُونَكُمْ وَلَا تَعْتَدُوٓا۟ », "fight … those who fight you, but do not commit aggression", then « فَإِنِ ٱنتَهَوْا۟ فَلَا عُدْوَٰنَ إِلَّا عَلَى ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ », "if they cease, then no hostility, except toward the unjust";
- 4:89-91: the exception of those bound by a covenant, or who offer peace;
- 8:56-61: « وَإِن جَنَحُوا۟ لِلسَّلْمِ فَٱجْنَحْ لَهَا », "if they incline toward peace, incline toward it also";
- 60:8-9: the criterion is having fought and expelled; toward those who did not, God does not forbid beneficence and equity.
Sura 9 is thus read as a mobilisation after the breaking of oaths, not as an unconditional order. The translation keeps these frames as they are, neither softening them nor detaching them.
In the text
وَقَٰتِلُوا۟ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّذِينَ يُقَٰتِلُونَكُمْ وَلَا تَعْتَدُوٓا۟“And fight, in the way of God, those who fight you, but do not commit aggression”
The cause ("those who fight you") and the limit ("do not commit aggression") in the same sentence.
فَإِنِ ٱنتَهَوْا۟ فَلَا عُدْوَٰنَ إِلَّا عَلَى ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ“and if they cease, then no hostility, except toward the unjust.”
The end of fighting is provided for with the order itself.
إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ عَٰهَدتُّم مِّنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَنقُصُوكُمْ شَيْـًۭٔا“except those of the associators with whom you made a pact, and who then did not fail you in anything”
In sura 9 itself, the exception immediately follows the announcement.
وَإِن جَنَحُوا۟ لِلسَّلْمِ فَٱجْنَحْ لَهَا“And if they incline toward peace, incline toward it also”
Peace offered stops the fighting.