Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Peaceful Coexistence

According to the Islamic historical narrative, the prophets carrier had two distinct phases, one in Mecca, where his preaching was characterized by a message of peaceful coexistence with the unbelievers combined with preaching on the nature of their sin, shirk, combined with warning of hell fire, and a second phase in Medina, where he was as much of a military figure leading a campaign of conquest as a religious preacher. As such, the scholars have classified the verses of the Qur'an into "Meccan" and "Medinian" verses. The Meccan verses show a strong impulse to pacifism and peaceful coexistence. This contrasts markedly with later "Medinian" verses such as the sword verse, which extol the believers to Jihad with the unbelievers. According to the doctrine of naskh, since the Meccan verses came to Muhammad first, they are abrogated or cancelled by the later Medinian verses when the two contradict one another. Thus "to you your religion, to me a religion" (Qur'an 109:6) is cancelled by the sword verse "fight and slay the polytheists (literally, those guilty of shirk) wherever you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)" (Qur'an 9:5).