﴿9-10﴾ “If two groups of believers fight one another, then make peace between them. If one of them commits aggression against the other, then fight the aggressing party until it returns to Allah’s command. If it returns, then reconcile them with justice and act justly. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly. * The believers are but brothers, so make peace between your brothers and fear Allah, so that you may receive mercy.”
This includes a prohibition [against] believers transgressing against and fighting (1) one another. If two groups of believers fight, the other believers must remedy this grave evil by reconciling them, mediating between them in the most effective manner for achieving peace, and pursuing the means that lead to it. If they are reconciled, that is well and good. But if “one of them commits aggression against the other, then fight the aggressing party until it returns to Allah’s command.” That is, until it returns to what Allah and His Messenger have prescribed: doing good and abandoning evil, one of the gravest forms of which is fighting. [His words,] “If it returns, then reconcile them with justice,” constitute a command both to reconcile them and to observe justice in doing so. Reconciliation may take place without justice, through wrongdoing and unfairness toward one of the two parties, but this is not the reconciliation that has been commanded. Neither party should therefore be favored because of kinship, a shared homeland, or any other aim or interest that would cause a departure from justice.
“Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly”—those who are just when judging between people and in every position of authority entrusted to them. This may even include a man’s justice toward his family and dependants by fulfilling their rights. An authentic hadith states: “In Allah’s sight, those who act justly are upon pulpits of light: those who are just in their judgments, toward their families, and in whatever they are entrusted with.”
“The believers are but brothers.” This is a bond Allah has established among the believers: whenever any person, whether in the east or west of the earth, believes in Allah, His angels, His Books, His messengers, and the Last Day, he is a brother to the believers. This brotherhood requires them to love for him what they love for themselves and to dislike for him what they dislike for themselves. The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—therefore commanded the rights of brotherhood in faith, saying: “Do not envy one another, do not bid against one another merely to inflate prices, do not hate one another, and none of you should undercut another’s sale. Be servants of Allah as brothers. A believer is the brother of a believer: ⦗801⦘ he neither wrongs him, nor abandons him, nor holds him in contempt” (2).
He—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—also said (3): “A believer is to another believer like a building, each part strengthening the other,” and he interlaced his fingers.
Allah and His Messenger have commanded believers to fulfill one another’s rights and to do all that brings about harmony, mutual affection, and continued bonds among them. All of this reinforces their mutual rights. Thus, if fighting breaks out among them, causing hearts to become divided, mutually hostile, [and estranged], the believers must reconcile their brothers and strive to remove the hostility between them.
He then commanded them generally to fear Him and made mercy the consequence of fulfilling the believers’ rights and fearing Allah, [saying: “so that you may receive mercy.” When mercy is attained, all good in this world and the Hereafter is attained. This indicates that failing to fulfill the believers’ rights is among the greatest barriers to mercy.]
Further benefits contained in these two verses, besides those already mentioned, include the following: fighting among believers is incompatible with the brotherhood of faith and is therefore among the gravest major sins; nevertheless, neither faith nor the brotherhood of faith is nullified by fighting, just as they are not nullified by other major sins short of associating partners with Allah. This is the doctrinal position of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāah. The verses also establish the obligation to reconcile believers with justice and to fight the rebellious faction until it returns to Allah’s command. If they were to desist for some reason other than compliance with Allah’s command—desisting on terms that may not lawfully be approved or accepted—this would not be permissible. Their property remains inviolable, for Allah permitted the shedding of their blood only while they persist in their aggression, but He did not permit taking their property.