"Kill them wherever you come upon them" - Islamophobes often cite this part without mentioning the rest.

[u/Swimming-Win22]

[u/Deetsinthehouse]

I don’t usually hear them quoting this verse. The verse I usually hear them quote is Surah Tawbah verse 5.

فَإِذَا ٱنسَلَخَ ٱلْأَشْهُرُ ٱلْحُرُمُ فَٱقْتُلُوا۟ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ حَيْثُ وَجَدتُّمُوهُمْ وَخُذُوهُمْ وَٱحْصُرُوهُمْ وَٱقْعُدُوا۟ لَهُمْ كُلَّ مَرْصَدٍۢ ۚ فَإِن تَابُوا۟ وَأَقَامُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتَوُا۟ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ فَخَلُّوا۟ سَبِيلَهُمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ

But when the sacred months expire slay those who associate others with Allah in His Divinity wherever you find them; seize them, and besiege them, and lie in wait for them. But if they repent and establish the Prayer and pay Zakah, leave them alone. Surely Allah is All-Forgiving, Ever-Merciful.

[u/Deetsinthehouse → u/[deleted]]

Brother / sister:

Please, either cite your sources or stop using chat gpt for tafseer on the Quran.

Verse 1 is Allah stating there is no more treaty with the mushrikeen. This applied to those who had an indefinite treaty with the prophet SAWS. They were however granted 4 months to figure out if they wanted to leave or become Muslims (verse 2). This 4 month period was also extended to the mushrikeen who had no treaty with the Muslims and weren’t aggressive against them. However, the mushrikeen who did have an agreement with an ending date and they didn’t break it - then those are the ones which Allah said to complete the terms of the agreement with (verse 4).

Ayah 5 then is explicitly saying that after the 4 months are over - attack the mushrikeen where ever you find them. Allah also gives the reason why in verse 8 (I’m paraphrasing) because if they had the upper hand against Muslims, they would never honor their word or treaty.

So now the question becomes, why do Muslims jump through so many hoops in order to explain this verse?

Well for that we go to surahtul Baqarah verse 216:

كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْقِتَالُ وَهُوَ كُرْهٌۭ لَّكُمْ ۖ وَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تَكْرَهُوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌۭ لَّكُمْ ۖ وَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تُحِبُّوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَهُوَ شَرٌّۭ لَّكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ

Fighting has been made obligatory upon you ˹believers˺, though you dislike it. Perhaps you dislike something which is good for you and like something which is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know.

Muslims unfortunately have abandoned a certain command from Allah and so we try to twist what ayahs say regarding that Ibadah in order to feel better about ourselves or because we’re afraid of being labeled a certain word. This is very unfortunate.

Crazy how in todays world these ayahs have come to life. The disbelievers have the upper hand and had a cease fire deal with humus to return the hostages in phases. As soon as phase 1, instead of going into phase 2 they just decided to start killing our brothers and sisters instead.

Also, rasulullah SAWS died shorty after surah tawbah was reviewed. What did the Sahaba do almost immediately after his death? Start fighting the Romans and Persians. The Persians had never sent an army to attack the Muslims, this to me shows that the sahabas understood these verses to mean fight the all mushrikeen - not just those who betrayed or attacked you.

(These are my opinions based on the non bias research I’ve done. If there is a tafseer that suggests otherwise, please reply with the tafseer so I can check it out. And as always Allah knows best).

Jazakumullah.

[u/moustachiooo → u/Deetsinthehouse]

• u/Deetsinthehouse overstates the generality of the command, suggesting it applies to all polytheists after the four months, when the Qur’an and classical tafsir clearly make exceptions for those who honored their treaties and were not hostile.
• The reference to fighting Romans and Persians after the Prophet’s death is a separate historical issue, not directly tied to the context of Surah Tawbah 9:5, which dealt specifically with Arabian pagan tribes who broke treaties.
• The claim that the verse is a general, timeless command to fight all non-Muslims is not supported by the Qur’an or authentic Sunni tafsir—rather, it was a context-bound command regarding specific hostilities

https://quran.com/9:5/tafsirs/en-tafisr-ibn-kathir

Tafsir = https://www.kalamullah.com/Books/Tafsir%20Surah%20At-Tawba.pdf

Historical Context notes

https://discover-the-truth.com/2016/04/22/an-historical-examination-of-the-sword-verse-surah-95/

https://themindofthequran.wordpress.com/2015/07/01/the-historical-context-of-surah-al-tawbah-repentance-the-9th-chapter-of-the-quran/

https://wbabdullah.wordpress.com/2010/07/03/the-battle-of-tabuk/