يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ قَٰتِلُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ يَلُونَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْكُفَّارِ وَلْيَجِدُوا۟ فِيكُمْ غِلْظَةً وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَعَ ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ
Yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanū qātilu'lladhīna yalūnakum mina'l-kuffāri wa'l-yajidū fīkum ghilẓa · Wa'ʿlamū anna'llāha maʿa'l-muttaqīn
"O you who believe! Fight those of the rejecters who are near you, and let them find firmness in you. And know that God is with those who guard themselves."
Per the method (Method), the verse must be read together with its own qualifications — and these qualifications are not interpretation but the elements of the sentence itself:
| Qualification | Expression | What it limits |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alladhīna yalūnakum | Who — those who are near, not a general category |
| 2 | Wa'l-yajidū fīkum ghilẓa | How — deterrence; an attribute that is to be found |
| 3 | Wa'ʿlamū anna'llāha maʿa'l-muttaqīn | Condition — the being-with is tied to guarding oneself |
The root و-ل-ي: to be near, to be adjacent. Walī, awlā, mawlā are from the same root. Yalūnakum — "those adjacent to you", that is, those nearest in respect of distance.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the word itself: the verse states an order — beginning from what is near. And this is consistent with the line the sūra has kept from the start: from the ninth verse onward the one addressed is a determinate party that made a treaty and broke it; the fourth verse of the sūra openly excepted those who did not break their treaty, and the sixth the one who seeks refuge.
غِلْظَة — root غ-ل-ظ: hardness, firmness, thickness. The root occurs in al-Tawba at 9/73 (wa'ghluẓ ʿalayhim) and in Āl ʿImrān at 3/159 (ghalīẓa'l-qalb).
And the difference between the two uses is worth recording: in Āl ʿImrān being ghalīẓa'l-qalb (hard of heart) is a censured attribute — wa law kunta faẓẓan ghalīẓa'l-qalbi la'nfaḍḍū min ḥawlik. In al-Tawba, by contrast, ghilẓa is asked for as something the other side is to find.
I record this as my own reading: the two do not contradict one another, because the parties addressed are different — one is a bearing towards one's own circle, the other a deterrence towards a party in a state of war. And in al-Fatḥ at 48/29 (ashiddāʾu ʿala'l-kuffāri ruḥamāʾu baynahum) this distinction was treated and a limit was laid down there; I rely on that treatment.
The limit drawn per the method (Method)
No present-day political or military conclusion is drawn from this verse. The frame of the verse is a state of mutual war which the sūra itself relates; and the limits of that state were enumerated one by one in the first sixteen verses of the sūra (the excepting of the one who keeps his treaty, the protecting of the one who seeks refuge and his being brought to a place of safety, the answering in kind when peace is inclined to — treated in al-Anfāl at 8/61).
And the last sentence of the verse leaves a measure: inna'llāha maʿa'l-muttaqīn. The being-with, that is, is tied not to the fighting itself but to guarding oneself — and taqwā is the word that has been repeated since the second verse of the sūra.