A brief overview on the Nakhlah incident. As we have documented before, a unit of Abdullah ibn Jahsh was sent to the area called Batn Nakhlah. Their mission, as is recorded in Ibn Ishaq and other sources was to monitor the movement of the Quraysh enemy, and report back to the Prophet (p) accordingly. This was their only task (See evidence: here and here). But some of the Companions of the Prophet (p) didn't listen to the commands given, they attacked the Quraysh's men. When they came back to Madinah and told the Prophet (p) what they did, he was not happy with what they did. Hence this verse revealed concerning them.
2:217 They ask you about the sacred month – about fighting therein. Say, "Fighting therein is great [sin], but averting [people] from the way of Allah and disbelief in Him and [preventing access to] al-Masjid al-Haram and the expulsion of its people therefrom are greater [evil] in the sight of Allah . And fitnah is greater than killing." And they will continue to fight you until they turn you back from your religion if they are able. And whoever of you reverts from his religion [to disbelief] and dies while he is a disbeliever – for those, their deeds have become worthless in this world and the Hereafter, and those are the companions of the Fire, they will abide therein eternally.
2:218 Indeed, those who have believed and those who have emigrated and fought in the cause of Allah – those expect the mercy of Allah . And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
"232 The objection, which was raised in the form of a question about warfare in the sacred month, refers to an incident which took place in the month of Rajab in the second year of Hijra.
"217a. The opening words of this verse prohibit fighting in the sacred months (the reasons for which are given in v. 189), except by way of reprisal (see v. 194). But at the same time the unbelievers are told that the wrongs they inflicted on the Muslims, never caring for the sacred months and the sacred territory, were worse than slaughter. Then we are told that the unbelievers took up the sword to force the Muslims back into unbelief and that they were determined to carry on the war until they gained this end. Note the words they will not cease fighting you until they turn you back from your religion, if they can, which give the lie direct to the assertion that the Muslims started war to convert the unbelievers by force.
217b. The persons spoken of in this passage are the apostates. A wrong impression exists among non-Muslims, and among many Muslims as well, that the Holy Qur'an requires those who apostatize from Islam to be put to death. This is not true. One Christian writer has gone so far as to misconstrue the word fa-yamut as meaning he shall be put to death, while even a beginner knows that the significance of these words is then he dies. What is stated here is that the opponents of Islam exerted themselves to their utmost to turn back the Muslims from their faith by their cruel persecutions, and therefore if a Muslim actually went back to unbelief he would be a loser in this life as well as in the next, because the desertion of Islam would not only deprive him of the spiritual advantages which he could obtain by remaining a Muslim, but also of the physical advantages which must accrue to the Muslims through the ultimate triumph of Islam.
Neither here nor anywhere else in the Holy Qur'an is there even a hint at the infliction of capital or any other punishment on the apostate. The only report which records a case of death being inflicted on apostates is that of the party of 'Ukl, who, after professing Islam, feigned that the climate of Madinah was insalubrious, and, being told to go to the place where the herds of camels belonging to the state were grazed, murdered the keepers and drove the herds along with them. The facts of the case clearly show that capital punishment in this case was not inflicted for change of faith, but on account of the crime of murder and dacoity. This case is generally cited by the commentators under 5:33, which speaks of the punishment of dacoits. There is no other case showing that the punishment of death was ever inflicted on apostasy from Islam.
"237 Prohibited Month; See 2:194, n. 209.
238 The intolerance and persecution of the Pagan clique at Makkah caused untold hardships to the Messenger of Islam and his early disciples. They bore all with meekness and long-suffering patience until the Holy One permitted them to take up arms in self-defence. Then they were twitted with breach of the custom about Prohibited Months, though they were driven to fight during that period against their own feeling in self-defence. But their enemies not only forced them to engage in actual warfare, but interfered with their conscience, persecuted them and their families, openly insulted and denied Allah, kept out the Muslims from the Sacred Mosque, and exiled them. Such violence and intolerance are deservedly called worse than slaughter.
418. i.e., Rajab, one of the four months held sacred by the Arabs.
419. (knowingly), i.e., knowing it to be the month of Rajab.
420. (which sin no Muslim has been guilty of). The pagans had charged a certain Muslim with killing a pagan on the 1st of Rajab. The Muslim's defence, perfectly sound, was that he took the day to be the last date of the preceding month, and did not know that the month of Rajab had commenced.
421. (by subjecting them to the bitterest persecution).
422. (by planting images and idols in the sacred Ka'ba) The words ,,, are grammatically coupled with the pronoun … in .. and not with ….
423. (In a most cruel and heartless way). The pronoun in … refers to … and not to …. The Prophet and the believers alone were competent to dwell with the sacred precincts.
424. (than the accidental slaying of a pagan).
425. (did it lie, then, in the mouth of pagans, who cared neither for the sanctity of the sacred months nor for that of the sacred territory, and respected neither human life nor property, wherever the terrible persecution and unspeakable oppression of the converts to Islam was concerned, to seek refuge in the sanctity of the 'sacred month?').