pro said:
9:29 is from a chapter that says over and over warfare may only be conducted against people who attack Islam first. The ayat doesn’t say anything about when to initiate violence; it’s got conditions for ending a war against aggressors.
It’s a message of self-defense against people who violate treaties to attack you first. It’s certainly not terrorism.
Maududi:
The first discourse (vv. 1-37), was revealed in Zil-Qa’adah A. H. 9 or thereabout. As the importance of the subject of the discourse required its declaration on the occasion of Haj the Holy Prophet despatched Hadrat Ali to follow Hadrat Abu Bakr, who had already left for Makkah as leader of the Pilgrims to the Ka’abah. He instructed Hadrat Ali to deliver the discourse before the representatives of the different clans of Arabia so as to inform them of the new policy towards the mushriks.
Ibn Kathir:
The first part of this honorable Surah was revealed to the Messenger of Allah when he returned from the battle of Tabuk, during the Hajj season, which the Prophet thought about attending. But he remembered that the idolators would still attend that Hajj, as was usual in past years, and that they perform Tawaf around the House while naked. He disliked to associate with them and sent Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, to lead Hajj that year and show the people their rituals, commanding him to inform the idolators that they would not be allowed to participate in Hajj after that season. He commanded him to proclaim,
﴿بَرَآءَةٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ﴾
(Freedom from (all) obligations (is declared) from Allah and His Messenger ()…), to the people. When Abu Bakr had left, the Messenger sent `Ali bin Abu Talib to be the one to deliver this news to the idolators on behalf of the Messenger , for he was the Messenger’s cousin. We will mention this story later.
This event of revelation is also told in the sahih hadiths of Muslim and Bukhari, eg.:
Sahih Bukhari 6:60:179
Narrated Humaid bin Abdur Rahman: Abu Huraira said, "Abu Bakr sent me in that Hajj in which he was the chief of the pilgrims along with the announcers whom he sent on the Day of Nahr to announce at Mina: “No pagan shall perform Hajj after this year, and none shall perform the Tawaf around the Ka’ba in a naked state.” Humaid added: That the Prophet sent 'Ali bin Abi Talib (after Abu Bakr) and ordered him to recite aloud in public Surat-Baraa. Abu Huraira added, “So 'Ali, along with us, recited Bara’a (loudly) before the people at Mina on the Day of Nahr and announced “No pagan shall perform Hajj after this year and none shall perform the Tawaf around the Ka’ba in a naked state.”…except those pagans with whom you (Muslims) have a treaty.” (9.4)
Muhammad conquered Mecca in Ramadan 8AH, Hunain a month later, and Tabuk in Rajab A. H. 9. Thus, by all accounts Surah 9 (including 9:29) was revealed AFTER Muhammad had conquered Arabia.
What is this nonsense about the surah being revealed as self-defense against people who violated treaties and attacked the Muslims? By the time this surah was revealed, the pagans were already defeated. There were no more enemies fighting the Muslims in Arabia as the last pagan military force was defeated at Hunain and Taif. Following the Tabuk campaign, the rest of Arabia, including Yemen in the south, capitulated and submitted to Muhammad – some converted, some accepted dhimmitude, but what Muhammad wanted was to abrogated all treaties he had made in the past, except for that he made with the Banu Damra (which had only nine more months to go) and attack all the remaining polytheists. By doing so he brought the entire Arabian Peninsula within his sway.
The first part of Surah 9 was an unilateral declaration of war against all disbelievers.
cont.