And slay them wherever you come upon them, [wherever] you find them: eliminate the life in them and prevent them from their acts by suppressing their desires which are [the source of] their spirit wherever they may be; and expel them from [where they expelled you]: from the Mecca of the breast when they seize it, as they expelled you from it when they drew you down to the site of the soul and out of the seat of the heart; [seditious temptation is more grievous than slaying]: their seditious trial, that is their worship of its [the soul's] desires and the idols of its [carnal] delights, is more grievous than the suppression of its desires and its total mortification or [it means] that your being tested and tried by their conquest is more grievous for you than being slain which is the obliteration of your animal instincts and the total effacement of your preparedness because of the increased pain [that would ensue] therefrom.
But fight them not by the Sacred Mosque, which is the station of the heart, that is, [do not fight them] during the presence of the heart if they accord with your orientation, for they would then be aids to you in your wayfaring, until they should fight you there, and contend with you in pursuit of their demands, dragging away from the heart and the religion of truth towards the station of the soul and their religion, which is the worship of the calf; [then if they fight you, slay them - such, is the requital of disbelievers].