The Pilgrimage
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[22:60]
Thus shall it be.
And as for him who responds to aggression only to the extent of the attack levelled against him, and is thereupon [again] treacherously attacked – God will most certainly succour him: for, behold, God is indeed an absolver of sins, much-forgiving.

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* v.60 : Lit., “who has retaliated with the like of what he had been afflicted with” – i.e., has acted only in self-defence and done to his enemy no more than the enemy had done to him. (A similar phrase, relating to retaliation in argument, is found in 16:126 and explained in the corresponding note 150.)
* While the opening sentence of this verse stresses the principle of self-defence as the only justification of war (cf. 2:190 and 192-193) – with the proviso that retaliation must not exceed the injury initially suffered – the concluding part of the verse implies that in case of repeated, unprovoked aggression the believers are allowed to wage an all-out war with a view to destroying completely the enemy’s military power. Since such an all-out war might seem to conflict with the principle of limited retaliation alluded to above, the Qur’ān states that God absolves the believers of what otherwise might have been a sin, since it is they “against whom war is being wrongfully waged” (verse 39) by repeated acts of aggression.