had not partaken in the Jihad in the Way of Allah for one explanation or the other. Exegesis Verses 9:2 - 9:6 The Quran, chapter 9 (At-Tawba), verses 2–6: is termed as the Sword Verse. The journalist Arun Shourie has criticized this and many other verses from the Quran contending that the Sunnah and the Hadith are equally evocative in their support of Jihad. Many mainstream Islamic scholars, however, assert that this verse relates to a very specific event in early Islamic history i.e. the covenant that was made and consecutively broken by the polytheist tribes of Mecca:74-91. Some think they very easily bypass the fact that Quran is often quoted by Islamic scholars to be the book perfect for all times and all places and all humans, and if it is so, its verses never need a historical context at all. On the other hand, even if the Quran are not supposed to have a historic contextual explanation the context provided (such as the unfaithfulness in pacts and treatises) are mentioned in the previous verses, thus a part of the Quran itself instead of an "out-world" context relations. According to Asma Afsaruddin, citing various early exegetes' opinions regarding the Arab polytheists, the consensus among the earliest commentators has been that this does not translate into indiscriminate killing.:88-89 Similarly, Western Islam-scholar Rudolph F. Peters also asserts that indiscriminate killing is not supported in this verse. Verse 9:29 At-Tawbah also contains: Al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210), on this occasion quoted an early exegetical authority, Abū Rawq (d. 140/757), who explained that this verse was not a unilateral condemnation of all Jews and Christians, but those "who do not heed the prescriptions contained in the Torah and the Gospel, respectively". Similarly Al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1273) "did not read into Qurān 9:29 a wholesale denunciation of the People of the Book as an undifferentiated collectivity".:278 Modern Muslim scholars like Muhammad Abduh shared similar views, agreeing that this verse was revealed on the occasion of the military campaign in Tabuk, and this verse specifically deals with the People of the Book", and also that "the only kind of legitimate war on which there is unanimity among Muslim scholars is the defensive war when proclaimed by the Imām in the event of an attack upon Muslim territory". The Grand Imam of al-Azhar from 1935 to 1945, Mustafa Al-Maraghi, notes that 9:29 means: "fight those mentioned when the conditions