The word, fight, in the Quran might not be literally interpreted as creating physical violence and havoc in the society.

Submitted by zuma (Singapore), May 12, 2012 at 06:21

There is a query whether the word, fight, in the Quran should be literally interpreted as physical violence. The following are the extracts from various translations for elaboration:

1)An-Nisa, Chapter #4, Verse #76, "Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil: So fight ye against the friends of Satan: feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan." (Mohsin Khan's translation) The phrase, those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil, as mentioned above should not be interpreted literally as physical violence or else the phrase would turn up to be that those that do not believe in Allah would take out weapons to fight against evil. As the phrase, fight in the cause of evil, as mentioned above should not be literally interpreted as physical violence against evil, the phrase, fight in the cause of Allah, should not be literally interpreted as stirring up physical violence and havoc in the society. The same is for the subsequent phrase, So fight ye against the friends of Satan, would not be literally interpreted as stirring physical violence and havoc against Satan. The only acceptable interpretation for the word, fight, above should be meant for spiritual fighting instead of physical fighting. Or in other words, when the phrase, fight in the cause of Allah, is mentioned, it could mean the people that struggle spiritually to gain many believers as they could instead of implying stirring up physical violence in the society. When the phrase, fight in the cause of Evil, is mentioned above, it could imply that those non-muslims that reject faith are challenging the risk of evil and that is spiritual death in the future to be separated from Allah eternally. The phrase, So fight ye against the friends of Satan, as mentioned above, could be interpreted as those non-muslims that reject faith would turn up to challenge spiritually against the friends of Satan in which the Satan might have set trap for their down-fall.

2) An-Nisa, Chapter #4, Verse #76, "Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil: So fight ye against the friends of Satan: feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan." (Yusuf Ali's translation) The phrase, those who reject Faith fight in the cause of evil, as mentioned here could not be interpreted as those who reject Faith would take up arms to fight against evil. The phrase, So fight ye against the friends of Satan, could also not to be interpreted as taking up arms to fight physically the invisible Satan. Thus, most likely all the word, fight, in Quran refers to spiritually fighting, such as, earnestly calling non-muslims to become muslims instead of literally means taking up arms to stir up problem in the society.

3) An-Nisa, Chapter #4, Verse #76, "Those who believe fight in the way of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the way of the Shaitan. fight therefore against the friends of the Shaitan; surely the strategy of the Shaitan is weak." (Shakir's translation) The phrase, those who disbelieve fight in the way of the Shaitan, should not be interpreted as taking up arms to fight against invisible Shaitan or else one would ponder what weapons to use so as to fight with them physically.

4) An-Nisa, Chapter #4, Verse #76, "Those who believe do battle for the cause of Allah; and those who disbelieve do battle for the cause of idols. So fight the minions of the devil. Lo! the devil's strategy is ever weak." (Pickthal's translation) The phrase, those who disbelieve do battle for the cause of idols, could not be interpreted as those who disbelieve who fight physically against the idols. This is due to some non-muslims are idolatry worshippers and they certainly would not fight against the idols. Thus, the phrase, those who disbelieve do battle for the cause of idols, should be interpreted as those who disbelieve would turn up to have the risk as idols to be in the hell.

From the above different translation, it would come to the conclusion that the word, fight, in Quran might not encourage muslims to stir up physical violence and havoc against non-muslims in the society. Instead, it could mean to stir up spiritual war in the sense to get more people to become muslims.

If that is the case, there is a possibility that the phrase, to fight until unbelievers no more, could be interpreted as to have spiritually warfare so as to get more non-muslims to become muslims until no more non-muslims in that place instead of referring it to physical violence or etc.

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