﴿ يَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَنِ ٱلشَّهْرِ ٱلْحَرَامِ قِتَالٍۢ فِيهِ ۖ قُلْ قِتَالٌۭ فِيهِ كَبِيرٌۭ ۖ وَصَدٌّ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَكُفْرٌۢ بِهِۦ وَٱلْمَسْجِدِ ٱلْحَرَامِ وَإِخْرَاجُ أَهْلِهِۦ مِنْهُ أَكْبَرُ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَٱلْفِتْنَةُ أَكْبَرُ مِنَ ٱلْقَتْلِ ۗ وَلَا يَزَالُونَ يُقَٰتِلُونَكُمْ حَتَّىٰ يَرُدُّوكُمْ عَن دِينِكُمْ إِنِ ٱسْتَطَٰعُوا۟ ۚ وَمَن يَرْتَدِدْ مِنكُمْ عَن دِينِهِۦ فَيَمُتْ وَهُوَ كَافِرٌۭ فَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَٰلُهُمْ فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱلْءَاخِرَةِ ۖ وَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ أَصْحَٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَٰلِدُونَ ﴾

“They will ask thee about fighting in the sacred month. Say: "Fighting in it is an awesome thing (grave transgression); but turning men away from the path of God and denying Him, and [turning them away from] the Inviolable House of Worship and expelling its people there from - [all this] is yet more awesome (greater transgression) in the sight of God, since oppression is more awesome (greater transgression) than killing." [Your enemies] will not cease to fight against you till they have turned you away from your faith, if they can. But if any of you should turn away from his faith and die as a denier of the truth - these it is whose works will go for nought in this world and in the life to come; and these it is who are destined for the fire, therein to abide.”

They ask you about the sacred month and fighting in it. Say �Fighting in it is a grave thing; but to bar from God's way and disbelief in Him and the sacred mosque and to expel its people from it-that is graver in God's sight; and sedition is graver than slaying.� Among the acts of disobedience some are worse than others and more intractable. Bad manners at the door do not have the same consequences as they do on the [more intimate] carpet. When the error occurs through the lower self the effect upon [the lower self] is through the deferrred punishment which is burning iḥtirāq [in the hereafter]. When the heart errs the punishment is immediate through separation firāq. The effect of heedlessness on hearts is more serious than the harm caused to the lower selves by error for surely the lower self is kept from good fortune ḥaẓẓ but the heart is kept from the Real ḥaqq. They will not cease to fight against you until they turn you from your religion if they are able; and whoever of you turns from his religion and dies disbelieving-their works have failed in this world and the hereafter. Those are the inhabitants of the fire abiding therein. The allusion in this is to the people of heedlessness when they seek to lure you away and want to turn you toward their heedlessness. They will only be content when you break the pact of your spiritual desire irāda by returning to your previous state. Anyone who breaks fasakha his pledge to God deforms masakha his heart.