Themes in this ayah
Explore in Habl →Scores run 0–100: how strongly this ayah speaks to a theme. 70+ is central, 50+ is clear, under 50 is weak.
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11 ayahs in Al-Baqara are strongly about striving in Allah's way. This is one of them.
Tafsir
After the Prophet s was prevented from visiting the House in the year of the battle of Hudaybiyya he made a pact with the disbelievers that he would be allowed to return the following year at which time they would vacate Mecca for three days. Having prepared to depart for the Visitation ‘umra he and the believers were concerned that Quraysh would not keep to the agreement and instigate fighting. The Muslims were averse to becoming engaged in fighting while in a state of pilgrimage inviolability in the Sacred Enclosure al-haram and during the sacred months and so the following was revealed And fight in the way of God to elevate His religion with those who fight against you the disbelievers but aggress not against them by initiating the fighting; God loves not the aggressors the ones that overstep the bounds which God has set for them this stipulation was abrogated by the verse of barā’a ‘immunity’ Q. 91 or by His saying below