Al-Baqarah 191: Kill those (who have declared war upon you) wherever you capture them. Drive them away from the place (Makkah) from which they have driven you out. Instigation is worse than killing a person. In Masjid al-Haram, do not fight them unless they fight you. And if they start war against you, kill them. This is the punishment for those infidels.

Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 191: Them — those who fight against you — kill them wherever you catch them. Pay close attention to the verse, too. From where they drove you out, from Mecca, you drive them out.

Fitna is worse than killing. Fitna. At the Masjid al-Haram, as long as they do not fight you, do not fight them. If they wage war on you, then kill them. Such is the punishment of the unbelievers, He says.

Let us open up the context of this verse. In this verse Allah Almighty says: against those who (?) your lives and your homeland, fight, and kill them wherever you catch them. Against what? Whoever makes an attempt on your homeland and your life, your honour, your chastity. Today, to show an example: Iraq. They did not fight. What happened?

Are they safe? Neither their honour, nor their lives, nor their property.

For if these had been honest, they would not have declared war on a people that did not provoke them and would not have fought them. Their aim is to stir up fitna on earth and to kill innocent people. If such a people attacks you, you too fight them in like measure. Today we see such events emerging on earth. Isn't that so? We see these.

Yes.

In the time of the Prophet, the people of Mecca drove the Muslims out of Mecca.

They tormented them. They did not trade with them.

They left them to die. They tied them up, they imprisoned them.

(?) the noble Companions, from Mecca the Honoured to Medina the Illumined, as muhajirun went. Those who left there too go from Mecca the Honoured to Medina the Illumined as muhajirun. These are called muhajirun. Those in Medina are called tabi'in. Ansar. Yes, they are called Ansar.

The noble Companions in Medina the Illumined, whom they call the Ansar, opened their arms to their brothers who were muhajirun. They shared their homes and their property with the muhajirun. How beautiful. The proclamation of brotherhood. So, just as they drove you out of your homes, you too drive them out of there. Allah Almighty's saying this is glad tidings to the Muslims that Mecca the Honoured will be left. You too drive them out of their homes. That is, that the Muslims would come back again and threaten Mecca the Honoured. That is, drive them out of Mecca. Here, here, as the meaning points to the apparent, strongly a second meaning: because you were Muslims, they did not want to see you among them. For this reason they drove you out of your homes.

You too fight them until they become Muslims, that is, until religion is Allah's. If they ask you for peace, make an agreement with them. According to this verse, non-Muslims cannot enter Mecca and Medina.

Those who are not Muslims cannot enter. Because He says: you too drive them out of there. That is why there is a sign when entering Mecca or Medina. It says No Muslim. No non-Muslim may enter. Yes. In fact, Christians who are going to work in Mecca and Medina, according to this verse, become Muslims. Temporarily, of course. They become Muslims. After doing their duties there, they return to their own religion.

People who hold ideologies other than Islam are, on earth, inclined to fitna. Because in them there is love of the world, there is self-interest, there is fame and glory, there is pride and arrogance. Such people are inclined to fitna. At any moment they drown everything in fitna and look after their own interests.

And Allah Almighty says that fitna is worse than killing. A person kills a person. Knowingly or unknowingly he may take a few more people's lives. Eventually he is caught and serves his punishment. Fitna is not like that. It sets tribes and states against one another. In this way thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of people are killed unjustly. For this reason fitna is worse than killing. At the Masjid al-Haram, as long as they do not fight you, do not fight them. The Masjid al-Haram is not a place of war. The Masjid al-Haram is a place of safety. Whoever takes refuge there is safe. Whoever takes refuge in the Masjid al-Haram is safe.

It is where the divine presence of Allah Almighty Himself is, and where Allah's House stands — the place of tawaf and worship. There, as long as they do not wage war on you, do not fight them. If they wage war, then kill them. Because the punishment of a people that transgresses is only death.

Now, He does not say kill them elsewhere. In the Masjid al-Haram. Because there, He says, do not fight. That is the place of My divine presence. The place of My outward House. If you fight there — since you have overstepped Allah's command, those limits — kill them there, He says.