Al-Anfal: (39-40) And fight them until there is no more persecution...

Know that after Allah the Exalted clarified that if these disbelievers cease their disbelief, they will receive forgiveness, and if they persist, they are threatened with the fate of previous nations, He followed this by commanding fighting them if they insist, saying: {And fight them until there is no more persecution (fitnah)}.

'Urwah ibn al-Zubayr said: In the beginning of the call, the believers were being persecuted (yuftanūn) away from the religion of Allah. Some Muslims were thus afflicted by persecution, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) commanded the Muslims to emigrate to Abyssinia.

There is a second instance of fitnah: When the Ansar pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) at the Pledge of 'Aqabah, Quraysh conspired to persecute the believers in Mecca away from their religion, causing the believers severe hardship. This is what is meant by fitnah. Therefore, Allah commanded fighting them until this persecution ceases.

There is another perspective: People's intense love for their religions is stronger than their love for their own lives. Thus, the disbeliever constantly strives in the most extreme ways to harm the believers, cast doubts into their hearts, and subject them to trials and hardships. When fighting occurs, disbelief and hardship are removed, Islam becomes pure, and those persecutions are completely eliminated.

Al-Qadi said: Allah commanded fighting them and then explained the reason that necessitated their fighting: {until there is no more persecution (fitnah)}, meaning until the religion, which is the religion of Allah, is purified from all other religions. This objective is only achieved when disbelief is completely eradicated.

Once this is understood, we say: Either the meaning of the verse {And fight them} is for this meaning to be achieved, or the meaning is {And fight them} for the purpose that this meaning be achieved.

1. If the meaning of the verse is the first (that the result must be achieved), then this meaning must result from the fighting. Thus, it must mean that {and the religion becomes wholly for Allah} in the land of Mecca and its surroundings, because the objective was achieved here. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: (Two religions shall not coexist on the Arabian Peninsula). It cannot be applied to all lands, because if that were intended, disbelief would not have remained where the fighting commanded by Allah had occurred.
2. If the meaning of the verse is the second (that they are fought for the purpose that the religion becomes wholly for Allah), then under this assumption, it is not impossible to apply it to the removal of disbelief from the entire world. This is because not everything that is an objective for a person is actually achieved. Therefore, the command to fight was intended for the realization of this objective, whether it was realized immediately or not.

Then He said: {But if they cease, then indeed, Allah is Seeing of what they do}. This means: {But if they cease} from disbelief and all other sins through repentance and faith, {then indeed, Allah is Seeing of what they do}—He knows; nothing is hidden from Him—and He will grant them their reward. {But if they turn away}, meaning from repentance and faith, {then know that Allah is your Protector (Mawla)}, meaning your guardian who protects you and removes affliction from you. Then He explained that Allah is {the Excellent Protector and the Excellent Helper}. Everything under the protection and guardianship of this Protector, and within His sufficiency, is safe from calamities and secure from fears.

{And know that whatever spoils you take of anything, then indeed, for Allah is one-fifth of it, and for the Messenger, and for the near of kin, and for the orphans, and for the needy, and for the wayfarer, if you have believed in Allah and in what We sent down to Our Servant on the Day of Criterion (Al-Furqan), the Day the two armies met. And Allah, over all things, is competent.} (8:41)