The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, sent Abdullah ibn Jahsh on a raid in Jumada al-Akhirah, two months before the Battle of Badr, to ambush a caravan of the Quraysh in which was Amr ibn Abdullah al-Hudhrami and three others. They killed him and captured two, and drove off the caravan, which contained trade goods from Ta'if. This was on the first day of Rajab, while they thought it was still Jumada al-Akhirah. The Quraysh said: 'Muhammad has made lawful the sacred month, a month in which the fearful are safe and in which people disperse to their livelihoods.' The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, stopped the caravan, and this was a great matter for the men of the raid. They said: 'We will not leave until our repentance is revealed.' The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, returned the caravan and the captives. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: When this was revealed, the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, took the spoils. The meaning is that the disbelievers or the Muslims ask you about fighting in the sacred month. And fighting in it is a part of the sacred month. In the reading of Abdullah: about fighting in it, repeating the action, as in the saying: 'For those who were oppressed among them.' And Ikrimah read: 'killing in it,' meaning a great sin. And from Ata, he was asked about fighting in the sacred month? He swore by Allah that it is not lawful for people to raid in the sacred precinct or in the sacred month except to fight in it, and what has been abrogated. Most opinions hold that it has been abrogated by His saying: 'So kill the polytheists wherever you find them.' And 'preventing from the path of Allah' is the subject, and the greater part of it is its news, meaning that the major sins of the Quraysh are preventing them from the path of Allah and from the Sacred Mosque, and their disbelief in Allah and expelling the people of the Sacred Mosque, who are the Messenger of Allah and the believers, is greater with Allah than what the raiding party did in fighting in the sacred month out of error and based on assumption. And 'fitnah' is expulsion or polytheism. The Sacred Mosque is an apposition to the path of Allah, and it is not permissible to appose it to the pronoun in: 'by it.' And they will continue to fight you is news about the ongoing enmity of the disbelievers towards the Muslims and that they will not cease until they turn you away from your religion, and its meaning is causal, as in saying: 'So-and-so worships Allah until he enters Paradise,' meaning they fight you so that they may turn you away. And if they are able is an expression of disbelief in their ability, as when a man says to his enemy: 'If you overcome me, do not leave me.' He is confident that he will not be overcome. And whoever among you turns back from his religion to theirs and obeys them in returning to it, and dies in disbelief, those are the ones whose deeds have become worthless in this world and the Hereafter due to what they miss by committing apostasy, which the Muslims have in this world from the fruits of Islam, and by persisting in it and dying upon it from the reward of the Hereafter. And with this, Al-Shafi'i argued that apostasy does not nullify deeds until one dies upon it. And according to Abu Hanifa, it nullifies them even if he returns as a Muslim. Indeed, those who have believed and those who have emigrated, it was narrated that Abdullah ibn Jahsh and his companions, when they killed the Hudhrami, thought that if they were safe from sin, they would not have any reward, so it was revealed: 'Those are the ones who hope for the mercy of Allah.' And from Qatadah: These are the best of this nation, then Allah made them people of hope as you hear. And indeed, whoever hopes seeks, and whoever fears flees.