ؕ وَ لَوۡ لَا دَفۡعُ اللّٰہِ النَّاسَ بَعۡضَہُمۡ بِبَعۡضٍ ۙ لَّفَسَدَتِ الۡاَرۡضُ وَ لٰکِنَّ اللّٰہَ ذُوۡ فَضۡلٍ عَلَی الۡعٰلَمِیۡنَ ﴿۲۵۱

And if Allah did not repel some people by means of others, the earth would have been corrupted — but Allah is full of bounty to all the worlds.”

 “ؕ وَ لَوۡ لَا دَفۡعُ اللّٰہِ النَّاسَ بَعۡضَہُمۡ بِبَعۡضٍ لَّہُدِّمَتۡ صَوَامِعُ وَ بِیَعٌ وَّ صَلَوٰتٌ وَّ مَسٰجِدُ یُذۡکَرُ فِیۡہَا اسۡمُ اللّٰہِ کَثِیۡرًا ؕ

 ‘And if Allah did not repel some people by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of Allah is much mention’

Q:

Sharing the following from above. It’s hard to understand. Can you comprehend with help of verses like this in other places, explanations of theses verses by other scholars. Dont have to be in word or html documents.
“And if Allah did not repel some people by means of others, the earth would have been corrupted — but Allah is full of bounty to all the worlds.”
“Footnote 82 (Al-Hajj)
The original Arabic uses the words sawāmi’, biya’, and salawāt. A ṣawma’ah refers to a place where monks, ascetics, and world-renouncing devotees reside. Bī’ah is the Arabic term for a Christian place of worship. Ṣalawāt refers to the Jewish place of prayer — called ṣalūtā in Aramaic. It is not unlikely that the English words salute and salutation may have derived from this root, passing through Latin before entering English.
Footnote 83 (Al-Hajj)
That is, it is Allah’s great grace that He has not granted any one group or nation a permanent deed of sovereignty; rather, He continually repels one group through another at appropriate times. For if a single group had ever been given such a permanent deed, not only would fortresses, palaces, seats of power, and centres of industry and commerce have been destroyed — even the houses of worship would not have been spared from their depredations. In Surah Al-Baqarah, this same theme is expressed thus: “And if Allah did not repel some people by means of others, the earth would have been corrupted — but Allah is full of bounty to all the worlds.” (Verse 251)”

A:

This is a profound and important Quranic concept. Let me break it down comprehensively.

The Core Concept: Daf’ — Divine Repulsion as Cosmic Balance
The verse appears in two places:
∙ Al-Baqarah 2:251 — in the context of the story of Saul, Goliath, and David
∙ Al-Hajj 22:40 — in the context of the first permission granted to Muslims to fight back against oppression
The repetition itself is significant — it signals a universal principle, not merely a historical observation.

What Does “Repelling Some by Others” Actually Mean?
The Arabic word is دَفْع (daf’) — to push back, to repel, to ward off. Allah is saying that He has built into the structure of human civilization a self-correcting mechanism: no single power is allowed to dominate permanently and absolutely.
Think of it as a divine check-and-balance system embedded in history itself.

Why Two Different Contexts?
This is crucial to understand, and most readers miss it.
In Al-Baqarah (2:251), the verse comes after the story of David and Goliath. The lesson there is:
A small, faithful group defeated a massive, arrogant army — and if such correction did not happen, the earth would be corrupted.
The corruption referenced here (fasād) is political and social — tyranny going unchecked, oppression becoming permanent.
In Al-Hajj (22:40), the same principle is invoked but the stakes are described more specifically:
”…there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of Allah is much mentioned.”
Here the corruption is religious and spiritual — the extinction of all sincere worship of God from the earth.
So Mawdudi’s footnote 83 is pointing out that the same divine law operates on two levels simultaneously — political order AND the preservation of religious life on earth.

What Other Scholars Say
Ibn Kathir
Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir on Al-Baqarah 2:251 explains this as Allah’s wisdom in creating tawāzun — balance — among human groups. He notes that if one nation were given eternal dominion, its corruption would be total and irreversible. The rise and fall of nations is itself a mercy, not merely a punishment.
On Al-Hajj 22:40, Ibn Kathir makes a remarkable point: Allah mentions the protection of non-Muslim houses of worship — synagogues, churches, monasteries — alongside mosques. This shows that the divine principle of daf’ protects all sincere worship, not just Muslim worship. It is a universal mercy.
Al-Tabari
Al-Tabari emphasizes the linguistic dimension — that law (لَوْلَا — “if not for”) signals a counterfactual of mercy. Allah is saying: look at what the world would look like without this law operating. The fact that houses of worship still stand, that tyrannies eventually fall, that the oppressed eventually find relief — these are not accidents of history. They are signs (āyāt) of divine management.
Sayyid Qutb (Fi Zilal al-Quran)
Qutb brings the most emotionally powerful reading. Writing while himself imprisoned, he says this verse is a direct address to the Muslim community in every age of weakness:
The believers are never truly alone. The very structure of history is on their side — not because they are powerful, but because Allah has ordained that no falsehood holds the field forever.
He connects it to the broader Quranic theme that truth and falsehood are in permanent struggle, and Allah has guaranteed that falsehood, however dominant temporarily, carries within it the seeds of its own defeat.
Al-Zamakhshari (Al-Kashshaf)
Al-Zamakhshari, approaching from a linguistic and rational angle, stresses the word فَضْل (fadl — bounty/grace) at the end of the verse. He argues that calling this divine management fadl rather than ’adl (justice) is deliberate — it is not merely that Allah is fair in balancing powers, but that He goes beyond fairness into active grace and generosity toward His creation by ensuring no single tyrant extinguishes all light from the earth.

The Mention of Non-Muslim Worship Places — Why?
Footnote 82 highlights something remarkable that deserves its own attention. The verse in Al-Hajj lists in order:
1. Sawāmi’ — hermitages/monasteries (Christian and possibly others)
2. Biya’ — churches
3. Salawāt — synagogues
4. Masājid — mosques
This sequence, moving from the oldest to the newest form of Abrahamic worship, carries a powerful message: the divine law of daf’ protects all sincere remembrance of Allah across religious communities. Scholars like Ibn ’Ashur (Al-Tahrir wal-Tanwir) note this is one of the clearest Quranic statements of what we might today call freedom of conscience — Allah Himself is the guarantor of religious space for sincere worshippers across traditions.

The Historical Pattern This Describes
The Quranic principle maps onto what historians observe again and again:
∙ The Persian Empire checked by the Greeks; the Greeks by Rome; Rome by the rising Christian kingdoms; those kingdoms checked by Islam; the Islamic caliphate eventually challenged from within and without — no single power held forever.
∙ Every time one power seemed to have permanent dominance, something arose to check it.
The Quran is not merely describing this — it is naming it as Allah’s active governance of history.

The Deepest Point: Fadl, Not Just Justice
Both verses end with:
“But Allah is full of bounty (fadl) to all the worlds.”
This ending is striking. One might expect: “And Allah is All-Powerful” or “All-Knowing.” Instead: bounty.
The message is: this ongoing struggle, this constant repulsion of one people by another, the rise and fall of civilizations — it is not merely the cold mechanics of justice. It is an act of mercy and generosity toward humanity. Without it, the earth would have been handed over to permanent darkness long ago.

Summary in Simple Terms Question Answer from the Verse Why do empires fall? Because Allah does not permit permanent tyranny Why do the weak sometimes defeat the strong? Because Allah repels some through others Who benefits from this law? All of humanity — even non-Muslims What would happen without it? All places of worship — of every tradition — would be destroyed What does Allah call this? Not justice alone — but fadl (grace and bounty)

This is one of the most quietly profound verses in the Quran — a divine theory of history, embedded in a story about David and Goliath, then repeated in the context of the earliest permission for the oppressed to defend themselves. The repetition tells us: this is not circumstantial. It is a law of how Allah governs the world.