The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 530
PT. 14 وَاِنْ عَاقَبْتُمْ فَعَاقِبُوا بِمِثْلِ مَا b عُو قِبْتُمْ بِهِ - وَلَبِنْ صَبَرْتُمْ لَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لِلصَّبِرِينَ CH. 16 AN-NAHL to then 127. And if you desire punish the oppressors, punish them to the extent to which you have been wronged; but if you show patience, then, surely, that is best for those who are patient. 1927 وَاصْبِرُ وَمَا صَبُرُكَ إِلَّا بِاللهِ وَلَا And endure thou with. 128 patience; and verily thy patience تَحْزَنُ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا تَكُ فِي ضَيْقٍ is possible only with the help of Allah. And grieve not for them, "42:41. 42:44. 15:89, 98; 27:71. other arguments should revolve and will have to be proved regarding which they should support. The expression, Thy Lord best knows those who have strayed from. . . who are rightly-guided, contains a word of encouragement and good cheer for the Muslim evangelist. He is told that if in spite of his best efforts he finds that his preaching has not had the desired effect, he should not get discouraged and think that his preaching was defective, but should continue his noble work without slackening, leaving the result to God, because He alone knows who is deserving and destined to be guided to the right path. As Islam was to spread abroad and was to be preached to the people who claimed to possess revealed Scriptures, Muslims have been told in this verse that a much more difficult task lay ahead of them. While dealing with idolaters it was easy enough to refute idolatry, but with respect to the "People of the Book" the excellence and superiority of Islamic teachings details and auxiliary matters also. Hence the admonition given above. 1927. Commentary: In this verse Muslims are told that when they preach Islam to other nations, the latter, instead of listening to them, will persecute and wage war against them. In such a contingency Muslims will have to take up arms in self-defence. But even when fighting in self-defence, they are not to exceed legitimate bounds, but punish the enemy only to the extent to which he has oppressed them. The word used here which implies the permission to fight and retaliate in self-defence is 1738 (punish). The root-meaning of this word is "to follow". The use of this word thus shows that Muslims can only fight in self-defence. jihad connotes fighting only in self-defence i. e. only after Muslims have been wantonly attacked. The Quran has taken care to explain the necessary conditions and limitations of jihad