What are the classical tafsir interpretations of Quran 9:5 and 2:191?

1. Ibn Kathir and the immediate historical frame for 9:5: treaty breaches and wartime directives

Ibn Kathir’s classical tafsir treats the cluster around Surah At‑Tawbah (9:1–2 and following) as addressing a concrete diplomatic and military situation in Medina — warnings and then directives concerning specific Arab polytheists who had broken peace agreements — and reads 9:5 as instruction applicable in that wartime context rather than an unconditional, eternal order to kill all non‑Muslims (Ibn Kathir tafsir on 9:1–2) ^[1].

2. How classical exegesis restricts the scope of 9:5: exceptions and temporal limits

Across the classical corpus assembled in standard tafsir collections, commentators underline that 9:5 is preceded and qualified by verses and historical reports that exempt those who did not fight Muslims or who honored covenants; exegetes therefore treat the verse as limited to enemies actively engaged in hostilities or treaty‑breakers — a reading enforced by hadiths and situational reports used as interpretive keys in the classical manuals (collected tafsir anthologies; Ibn Kathir) ^{[3] [1]}.

3. 2:191 in the classical tradition: self‑defense, sanctity of the months and prohibition of transgression

Classical tafsir of Surah al‑Baqarah 2:191 places the clause “kill them wherever you find them” inside a chain of injunctions about being permitted to fight because of persecution and aggression, and about not transgressing limits — expositors connect it to earlier phrases forbidding persecution and to the special rules governing fighting in the sacred months and in the Sacred House, so that the line is read as authorizing combat against belligerents who attacked the Muslim community, not as carte blanche violence (Maʿarif al‑Qur’ān on 2:191; popular tafsir summaries) ^{[2] [4]}.

4. The classical debate over abrogation and textual priority

Classical scholars debated whether later Medinan rulings abrogated earlier, more restraining verses; for many medieval mufassirun, certain verses in At‑Tawbah (including 9:5) were treated as later regulatory rulings that modify prior permissions and emphasize measures to be taken against specific hostile groups — a technical juristic argument found across tafsir anthologies and compendia of classical commentaries (collected tafsir volumes; Ibn Kathir) ^{[3] [1]}.

5. Points of contention and alternative classical voices

While a dominant classical current limits these verses to wartime enemies and treaty‑violators, alternative medieval readings exist within the broad tafsir tradition: some jurists and exegetes argued for wider applicability, and other commentators emphasize ethical limits and procedural safeguards in warfare — the sources assembled in classical collections reflect this plurality and the reliance on contextualizing hadiths and sira reports to fix meaning (tafsir anthologies; qtafsir introductions) ^{[3] [5]}.

6. What the provided sources do and do not settle

The supplied tafsir excerpts and collections demonstrate that the classical methodology is context‑driven — linking words to incidents, hadith reports and legal norms — and that leading medieval commentators (e.g., Ibn Kathir and compendia in the collected tafsir volumes) read 9:5 and 2:191 as bound up with war, treaties and self‑defense; the materials provided do not, however, exhaust every medieval voice nor supply the full chains of hadith or specific sira reports used by each mufassir to reach their conclusions, so many fine‑grained juristic arguments and variant readings lie beyond the immediate sources offered (Ibn Kathir; collected tafsir; Maʿarif) ^{[1] [3] [2]}.