and its proof more evident. Since this condition was common among the groups of the believers, it is impossible to restrict the injunction to some groups while exclud‌ ing of others. The corollary of that would have been to prohibit warfare against all the disbelievers. Such a consequence is necessarily false.
The truth is that the purport of ikrah in the verse is the opposite to choice, and the sentence is a declarative sentence (khabariyya), and not a creative one (insha iyya). The purpose of the verse is to explain what is repeatedly mentioned- in the Quran‌ namely, that the divine Sharia is not based on compulsion, neither in its fundamen‌ tals nor in its derivatives. Rather, there is a divine wisdom in sending the prophets, revealing the books, and clarifying the ordinances-which is that those who are to be doomed shall be doomed possessing knowledge, and those who are to live shall live possessing knowledge, "in order that mankind might have no argument against God" [Q. ٤:١٦٥]. This is as God, the Exalted, says, "Lo! We have shown him the way whether he be grateful or disbelieving" (Q. ٧٦:٣).
Briefly stated, then, the purport of the verse is that God, the Exalted, does not coerce
anyone to have faith or be obedient. But He clarifies the truth, making it distinct from error, and He has indeed done that. Therefore, anyone who believes in the truth be‌ lieves of his own free will, and anyone who follows an error does so of his own voli‌ tion. God-sanctified be He, although able to guide all humankind if He so desires‌ in His wisdom decided that they are not to be compelled in their actions after the truth has been made clear for them and has been made distinct from falsehood. Thus God, the Almighty, says:

Had God willed He could have made you one community. But ... that He may try you by that which He has given you. So vie one with another in good works. To God you shall all return, and He shall then inform you of that wherein you differ (Q. ٥:٤٨). Say: For God is the final argument; had He willed He could indeed have guided all of you (Q. ٦:١٤٩). And the idolaters say: "Had God willed, we had not worshiped anything besides Him, we and our fathers, nor had we forbidden anything without [command from] Him. Even so did those before them. Are the messengers charged with nothing save plain conveyance [of the message]?" (Q. ١٦:٣٥).

( ١١) As for those of your women who are guilty of lewdness, call to witness four of you against them. And if they testify [to the truth of the allegation], then confine them to the houses until death f shall] take them or [until] God [shall] appoint for them a way [through new legislation]. (Q. ٤:١٥)

And as for the two of you who are guilty thereof, punish them both. And if they repent and improve, then let them be. Lo! God is Relenting, Merciful. (Q. ٤:١٦)

Some scholars, including Ikrima and Ubada b. al-Samit, maintain, as reported by al-I:Iasan on the authority of al-Raqashi, that the first of these verses was abrogated by the second; and the second one, by the ruling that if the person committing adul‌ tery were a virgin, he or she would be given a hundred lashes and banished for one year, and, if deflowered but unmarried (thayb),٣٦ a hundred lashes and stoning till deathY Some, like Qatada and Mui)ammad b. Jabir, have maintained that the first verse applies exclusively to the thayb, whereas the second applies to virgins; and that both have been abrogated by the flogging-and-stoning ruling. Others, like Ibn