Living The Quran
From Issue: 1000 [Read full issue]
Terrible Predicament
Al-Baqara (The Cow) Sura 2: Verses 190-193
"Fight in the cause of God those who fight you, but do not commit aggression: God loves not the aggressors. Slay them wherever you may come upon them, and expel them from where they had expelled you; for oppression (persecution) is worse than slaughter; but fight them not near the Sacred Mosque, unless they fight you therein; but if they fight you therein, slay them. Such is the reward of unbelievers. But if they desist, then God is All-forgiving, Compassionate to each. Fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for God. But if they desist, then all hostility shall cease, except against those who wilfully do wrong."
In this passage, the Quran is speaking to ordinary flawed human beings in a terrible predicament. It is a predicament that humanity has been all too capable of recreating down through history, so the specifics directed to one time and place have relevance far beyond the particular circumstances. In these circumstances the Quran does not expect people to be perfect and follow a counsel of perfection; and yet, simultaneously, it raises their souls and minds to the path of perfectability. It limits the permission to resist, while giving guidance on how to strive to do better, how to limit the damage human beings can cause to themselves, other people and the world in which they live. It offers limits and restraints that lead towards bettering the human condition; it points to ways of learning how to make peace. The Quran is consistent in being a manual for reform, not a one-off leap to the ideal, but a process, an ongoing task, an effort that must continually be made by mind and soul, a course to be returned to time and time again.
Let us start by looking at the context in which these verses were revealed. The tiny Muslim community, numbering no more than a few hundred people, is under siege. There is open hostility between Muslims and various Arabian tribes, particularly the Quraysh of Mecca. Having failed to suppress Islam in Mecca, and knowing that Muslims have found refuge in Medina and are gaining strength, the Quraysh have taken up the sword to annihilate the Muslims once and for all.
So what options do the Muslims have? In these ultimate circumstances, permission is given to the Muslim community, who up to this point had refrained from fighting, to fight in self-defence. The verses were revealed in situ when hostilities were in progress and the very survival of the Muslims as a community was at stake.
And yet, in these circumstances, Muslims are told not to 'transgress limits'—by which is meant commit atrocities, kill women, children or non-combatants, or burn down property or destroy cattle and fields, or respond disproportionately to aggression—for transgression could lead to self-destruction. And if the enemy ceases fighting, Muslims must lay down their arms; only hostility is to be met with hostility. Thus, the fight is resistance not to exterminate the enemy but only to persuade them to cease hostilities.
Oppression, persecution, we are told, are worse than 'slaughter'. As history shows, oppression can lead to unspeakable atrocities, the ongoing denigration and humiliation of human dignity by denying people their freedom and right to flourish and prosper. Oppression and persecution demean both the oppressor and the oppressed. They fuel continual hatreds and generate new conflicts by denying the rightful liberties and opportunities to thrive that should be enjoyed by all people. They are the living death of the spirit inflicted on the innocent. It was to prevent just such an occurrence that the Quran permits the Muslims of Medina to stand up and fight against the oppressors of Mecca who are torturing and abusing those Muslims who did not migrate from the city with the Prophet, as they abused and preyed upon Muslims before the migration.
Compiled From:
"Reading the Qur'an: The Contemporary Relevance of the Sacred Text of Islam" - Ziauddin Sardar, p. 135 - 138