Correspondence with Maulana Abul Lais Islahi Nadwi

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE of all previous prophets—since it cannot be shown for any other prophet that he was commanded to force people into Islam at swordpoint. The same issue remains with the verse in question. This verse appears—with slight variations in wording—in two chapters of the Quran (2:193 and 8:39). In both cases, God commands: “Fight them until there is no more fitnah, and the religion is entirely for Allah, and they desist (yantahu).” Three words here merit close attention: fitnah, deen, and intiha’. According to the nearly unanimous explanation by commentators such as Ibn ‘Abbas, Qatadah, al-Suddi, al-Hasan, Abu al-‘Aliyah, Mujahid, al-Rabi‘, Muqatil, Zayd ibn Aslam, and others, fitnah here refers to shirk (polytheism), deen means tawhid (monotheism), and intiha’ means stopping from shirk. In this interpretation, the verse means: “Fight them until they abandon their religion and give up shirk, embracing tawhid instead.” Clearly, if this verse is interpreted as defining the Messenger’s mission, the same objection applies as with the hadith above: it would mean that God sent the Messenger to fight until people recited the declaration of faith. Maulana Sadruddin Sahib has given this rather unusual explanation for the objection, stating: “To keep fighting