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When is war allowed to Muslims in the Quran, and what is Jihad?

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 2 May 2025

“And fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you but do not be aggressive. Surely Allah does not love the aggressors. And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from where they drove you out, and persecution is worse than slaughter. And do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it; so if they fight you (in it), kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers. But if they cease, then surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.” — ch. 2, Al-Baqarah, v. 190–192.

وَ قَاتِلُوۡا فِیۡ سَبِیۡلِ اللّٰہِ الَّذِیۡنَ یُقَاتِلُوۡنَکُمۡ وَ لَا تَعۡتَدُوۡا ؕ اِنَّ اللّٰہَ لَا یُحِبُّ الۡمُعۡتَدِیۡنَ ﴿۱۹۰﴾ وَ اقۡتُلُوۡہُمۡ حَیۡثُ ثَقِفۡتُمُوۡہُمۡ وَ اَخۡرِجُوۡہُمۡ مِّنۡ حَیۡثُ اَخۡرَجُوۡکُمۡ وَ الۡفِتۡنَۃُ اَشَدُّ مِنَ الۡقَتۡلِ ۚ وَ لَا تُقٰتِلُوۡہُمۡ عِنۡدَ الۡمَسۡجِدِ الۡحَرَامِ حَتّٰی یُقٰتِلُوۡکُمۡ فِیۡہِ ۚ فَاِنۡ قٰتَلُوۡکُمۡ فَاقۡتُلُوۡہُمۡ ؕ کَذٰلِکَ جَزَآءُ الۡکٰفِرِیۡنَ ﴿۱۹۱﴾ فَاِنِ انۡتَہَوۡا فَاِنَّ اللّٰہَ غَفُوۡرٌ رَّحِیۡمٌ ﴿۱۹۲﴾

These are the first verses revealed to the Holy Prophet Muhammad commanding Muslims to take up arms to fight their enemies. These were revealed at Madinah, after the hijrah, when the Quraish from Makkah decided to attack Madinah to destroy the Muslim community which was now established there. The opening words are absolutely clear. Muslims are commanded to fight those who fought against them, but not to be aggressive themselves. Most translators of the Quran into English use the words “aggression” and “aggressors” here, while some translate these words as: “but do not overstep the limits: God does not love those who overstep the limits”. The earliest translators of the Quran into English were George Sale and J.M. Rodwell in England, who produced their translations long before any Muslim did it. They translate these words as follows: “but transgress not by attacking them first, for God loves not the transgressors” and “but commit not the injustice of attacking them first: God loves not such injustice”. And these two translators were very harsh critics of Islam who tried to misrepresent Islam as a religion which spread by the sword.

So, everyone agrees that the first verse in this passage (v. 190) forbids Muslims from starting a war themselves, telling them that Allah does not like people who start wars.

The second verse begins with the words: “And kill them wherever you find them”. Since Muslims are forbidden from being the first to attack others, but only to respond to an attack by others, these words cannot possibly mean that Muslims can kill any non-Muslims wherever they find them. It only applies to those who are trying to kill Muslims in the first place, and if Muslims didn’t kill them they would kill the Muslims.

The next words are: “and drive them out from where they drove you out”. This allows Muslims to use force to take back from their enemies only what their enemies had unjustly taken from them, what was rightfully theirs.

The next words are “and persecution (fitnah) is worse than slaughter”. This indicates that the state of war and fighting, which involves loss of life, is itself a bad thing, but it is justified in order to stop persecution because that situation in the country is even worse than war. Therefore, according to the Quran, war and fighting is not a good thing to be glorified and praised, but becomes necessary to prevent a worse situation. It is just like a medical treatment for an illness. It is only justified if the disease is causing more problems than the treatment does.

Then another limitation is stated:

“And do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it; so if they fight you (in it), kill them”.

The area in which the Sacred Mosque is located was regarded, from ancient times long before the Holy Prophet’s time, as sacred land by all Arabs and fighting within it was considered as violating its sanctity. The Quran here says that as long as the Quraish enemies of the Muslims continue to respect its sanctity by not fighting in it, which they themselves believed in, then Muslims must also not fight them in it. This shows that if the enemy, with whom Muslims are at war, treats a certain territory as an area of peace where they will not engage in any fighting, then Muslims must refrain from fighting there as well.

The last verse in the passage that I read above says:

“But if they cease, then surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful”.

If the enemy stops the persecution of Muslims and fighting with them, then Allah will forgive them what they did in the past. All of this shows that Islam only allows Muslims to fight in self-defence and asks them to avoid fighting if possible.

Unfortunately, many Muslim scholars of later times after the Holy Prophet Muhammad have distorted these clear teachings and claim that Islam requires Muslims to wage war against non-Muslims because of their religions and not to stop until all other forms of worship, except worship of Allah alone, cease to exist and are replaced by worship of Allah alone. This is the position taken and promoted in an English translation of the Quran with notes produced under the title ‘The Noble Quran’ by Dr al-Halili and Dr Muhsin Khan. This was published from Madinah under the authority of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs of Saudi Arabia. The name of the publisher gives this book an air of authority, and this means that many readers will unfortunately take its interpretations to be the authentic teachings of Islam.

This Noble Quran translation equates jihad with fighting a war and makes them the same thing. In its translation of 2:190, the first verse which I quoted above, the translators have added a sentence in brackets after the verse, to say:

“This verse is the first one that was revealed in connection with Jihād…”.

This sentence is not in a footnote but added in the translation itself, in brackets. It is simply not true, as a plain matter of fact, whatever anyone’s belief about Jihad may be. This verse is in fact the first one revealed about fighting, and that is known as qitāl. But because the Noble Quran translators want to make Jihad the same as fighting, they make the baseless statement that this verse is the first one about Jihad. Jihad had been mentioned in the Quran several times long before this verse was revealed. For example, it is commanded in a verse revealed earlier:

“And strive hard for Allah with due striving” (22:78).

Here the words “strive hard” are literally “do jihad”, and “due striving” are literally “true jihad”. Even earlier is this verse:

“And whoever strives hard (literally, does jihad), only strives (literally, does jihad) for his own good” (29:6).

Muslims were required by Allah to strive their hardest long before any verse about fighting was revealed, and the Arabic word used for this was jihad. Of course, when the time came that Muslims had to fight in defence against their enemies, that fighting came under the category of Jihad because they were required to strive hard in that fighting. But that does not mean that fighting is the only Jihad and that every Muslim must fight by means of weapons in order to fulfil his duty of conducting Jihad. Jihad, or striving in the way of Allah, is a permanent duty of every Muslim, and in certain circumstances and conditions, which are strictly defined in the Quran, fighting by warfare was also included in Jihad. But fighting in itself is not an unconditional duty required of Muslims. Equally, if any Muslims undertake any fighting by weapons, it does not necessarily mean that it is a Jihad.

There is another earlier verse mentioning Jihad which commands the Holy Prophet as follows about the non-believers:

“And strive against them a mighty striving with it” (25:52).

Here “with it” means “with the Quran”. Literally the verse is commanding him to undertake a Jihad against the unbelievers, and not only any Jihad but a great Jihad, by means of the Quran. Even the Noble Quran translators have translated this verse as follows: “strive against them (by preaching) with the utmost endeavour with it (the Quran)”. They have correctly given the meaning of this verse by adding “by preaching” in brackets. This disproves their own assertion that the verse which allowed Muslims to fight was the first one revealed in connection with Jihad.

The Noble Quran translators do not stop at portraying Jihad as being the same as fighting in war, they go further than this. I mentioned above that the Quran says it allows fighting because a situation of fitnah is even worse than a situation of fighting, and by fitnah is meant the religious persecution, lack of freedom and oppression that Muslims were facing from their enemies. The verse after the three verses that I read above, v. 193, says:

“And fight them until there is no fitnah (i.e., persecution) and religion is only for Allah. But if they cease, then there should be no hostility except against the oppressors.”

The words “until … religion is only for Allah” mean that no one should be persecuted because of their religious beliefs. Only Allah will decide who is right and who is wrong. If they cease the persecution then there should be no hostility. Here the Noble Quran translators write that the fitnah of the enemies of the Muslims was that they disbelieved in Islam and worshipped other gods along with Allah. On this basis, they express the opinion that Muslims are required by the Quran to fight all non-Muslims until they stop worshipping other gods and only Allah is worshipped “in the whole of the world” (see their translation and footnote on 2:193 and 8:39). This view is entirely against the Quran and the practice of the Holy Prophet. It is because of such interpretations that the critics of Islam accuse it of spreading by the sword.

Not content with this, these translators have written in their footnotes that when Jesus comes back to earth to lead the Muslims — which is their wrong belief in any case — he will not accept that any non-Islamic religion should remain in existence. Twice they say:

“all people will be required to embrace Islam and there will be no other alternative” (footnote on 3:55 and on 8:39).

According to the Noble Quran translators, Muslims should be looking forward to the time when Jesus descends from heaven to the earth and compels the whole world to become Muslim, with no alternative. It is these false interpretations which have spread and fanned intolerance of other religions in Muslim societies and countries, and have caused enormous, untold damage to the image of Islam in the world, in fact the worst possible damage that could have been done. That intolerance towards other religions has then expanded to intolerance between various groups and sects of Islam towards one another.

This was why the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and Maulana Muhammad Ali, regarded it as absolutely imperative and essential to refute all such views comprehensively and to show that Islam gives every human being the freedom to accept whatever religion or beliefs that they wish to accept, whether right or wrong, and that Muslims are not allowed to attack someone because of their religion.

So may Allah enable the message of peace of this Great Reformer and his followers to reach the Muslims and non-Muslims of the whole world— Ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk