Bismillāh
أُذِنَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتَلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا ۚ وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ نَصْرِهِمْ لَقَدِيرٌ
Permission [to fight] is given to those upon whom war is made because they are oppressed, and most surely Allah is well able to assist them.
Sūrat al-Hajj, No. 22, Āyat 39
The opening verb of this verse, udhina (“permission has been given”), appears in the passive voice, with no explicit subject mentioned. This places emphasis on the act of permission itself, though the subject of the verb is clearly Allah (swt). It is He who has authorized the transition from thirteen years of restraint in Makkah to the initiation of armed defense in Madīnah. Importantly, the clause “because they were wronged” is central to understanding the context; it articulates the very rationale for this permission. Warfare is framed as a response to prior aggression on the part of the Muslims’ adversaries, the Quraysh.
It has been widely narrated in both Shīʿah and Sunnī sources that the above verse from Surat al-Hajj was the first in the Quran to sanction fighting. For instance, Imam al-Bāqir (a) is reported to have said:
The Messenger of Allah (s) was not commanded to fight, nor was permission given to him for it, until Jibrāʾīl descended with this verse … and he equipped him with a sword. (Bihār al-Anwār, v. 22, p. 15)
This verse was revealed shortly after the Hijrah, at a time when the nascent Muslim community consisted of two groups: the Muhājirūn, who had recently emigrated from Makkah, and the Anṣār, the native inhabitants of Madīnah who had welcomed them with open arms. The Muhājirūn had been compelled to abandon their homes, lands, and considerable wealth when they left Makkah, much of which was subsequently confiscated by the Quraysh who remained behind.
Beyond the severe financial hardships they faced, there was also the looming threat of a military strike by the Quraysh against the newly established Muslim state in Madīnah. As long as the Muslims had remained in Makkah, they had been subjected to oppression by the Quraysh, who were alarmed by their ideology and their growing numbers. It was highly improbable that the Quraysh would simply allow the Muslims to consolidate their position as an independent state without attempting to attack them.
In light of this situation, following the divine sanction granted in the verse above, the books of sīrah describe a series of small-scale expeditions dispatched by the Prophet (s), which ultimately culminated in a full-scale confrontation with the Quraysh at the Battle of Badr. In Islamic terminology, such missions are referred to as sariyyah when the Prophet (s) was not personally present, and ghazwah when he led them in person.
Among the earliest of these expeditions in the first year after the Hijrah were the sariyyah of Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and the sariyyah of ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith, both dispatched in the eighth month after the Hijrah, followed by the sariyyah of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ in the following month. In each case, the named companion was sent with a small contingent of Muslim fighters to pursue specific Quraysh trade caravans.
However, none of these early missions succeeded in directly capturing a caravan. This has led some Muslim historians, such as the contemporary scholar Mahdī Pīshvāʾī, to argue that these expeditions were not primarily intended as raids, but rather as shows of force designed to pressure the Quraysh. Other Muslim scholars, particularly in modern contexts where they seek to counter Orientalist and Islamophobic critiques, have emphasized that the Muslims were morally and legally justified in targeting Quraysh trade caravans as a means of reclaiming, at least in part, what had been unjustly taken from them.
The verse concludes with the words: “and indeed Allah is fully able to give them victory.” The community that had endured thirteen years of persecution in Makkah could scarcely have imagined that they would soon emerge as a formidable military force and triumph over the Quraysh. This divine promise of victory foreshadowed the events of Badr the following year, when a poorly armed Muslim force of just 313 soldiers found itself facing a well-equipped Quraysh army three times its size, yet emerged miraculously victorious.
Let this promise of divine assistance serve as a lasting lesson for us: Allah’s help will always be with those who sincerely strive in His cause. Just as He came to the aid of the Muslims at Badr, He will continue to assist them today. We ask Allah to grant us similar help and success in all our endeavors.
Sources: ʿAllāmah Muhammad Husayn Tabātabā’ī, Tafsīr al-Mīzān.