Section on verses pertaining to jihad and its corollaries

1 – Allah the Exalted says: “Permission [to fight] has been granted to those who are being fought, because they have been wronged—and Allah is indeed able to grant them victory” (Al-Hajj 22:39) and the verses that follow.

• At first the Muslims were commanded to keep their hands from fighting the unbelievers; their struggle was confined to calling people to the faith, for an evident wisdom. When they were persecuted, however—when the enemy compelled them to leave their lands and homes, killed whom they wished, imprisoned whom they wished, and pursued them with relentless hostility by every possible means—the Muslims emigrated to Madinah. There Allah strengthened them against their foes, and when the enemy loosed a single bow against them, united in enmity, Allah then granted them permission to fight. Hence His words: “Permission has been granted to those who are being fought because they have been wronged,” meaning because they were prevented (1) from their religion, driven from their homes, and hounded everywhere they went.

“And Allah is indeed able to grant them victory.” Together with His command that they take up the means and oppose the enemy with every resource, this is also a directive to rely on Him, seek His help, and ask it of Him.

• He then described the aggressors, saying: “those who were expelled from their homes” (Al-Hajj 22:40) through harm and persecution, “without right,” their only crime being their faith in Allah, their acknowledgment that He alone is their Lord and God, their devotion of worship solely to Him, and their renunciation of worshipping created beings. This is just as He says: “And they resented them only because…”