“Kill them wherever you encounter them, and drive them out from where they drove you out, for persecution is more grievous than killing. Do not fight them at the Sacred Mosque unless they fight you there. If they fight you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers. * But if they cease, Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful. * Fight them until there is no more persecution and religion belongs to Allah. But if they cease, then there is to be no aggression except against the wrongdoers.”

“Kill them wherever you encounter them.” This is a command to fight them wherever they are found, at any time and in any age, whether in defensive or offensive warfare. He then exempted from this general ruling fighting them “at the Sacred Mosque,” stating that this is not permissible unless they initiate the fighting. If they do, they are to be fought in retribution for their aggression. This ruling remains in force at all times until they abandon their disbelief and embrace Islam. Allah will then accept their repentance, regardless of the disbelief in Allah, the association of partners with Him at the Sacred Mosque, and the barring of the Messenger and the believers from it that they may have committed. This is part of His mercy and generosity toward His servants.

Because fighting at the Sacred Mosque might be thought to constitute an evil in this sacred land, Allah, Most High, explains that the evil of persecution there—through polytheism and barring people from His religion—is more grievous than the evil of killing. Thus, O Muslims, you incur no blame for fighting them.

This verse (1) is cited as evidence for the well-known principle that the lesser of two evils is to be committed in order to avert the greater.

Allah, Most High, then states the objective of fighting in His cause. Its objective is not to shed the blood of the disbelievers or seize their wealth. Rather, its objective is that “religion belongs to Allah”—Most High—so that the religion of Allah [Most High] may prevail over all other religions and everything that opposes it, whether polytheism or otherwise, may be repelled. This is what is meant by persecution. Once this objective is attained, there is to be neither killing nor fighting. “But if they cease” fighting you at the Sacred Mosque, “then there is to be no aggression except against the wrongdoers.” That is, no aggression is to be directed against them by you, except against any of them who commits wrongdoing, for he deserves punishment in proportion to his wrongdoing.