Commentary of the Hadith "Whoever raises arms against us is not one of us"

I found this quite interesting and thought some others might want to read it. The translation is not perfect but should still be understandable. The hadith is from Muslim's Sahih and the commentary is by Abu'l-'Abbas al-Qurtubi (d.656h), a scholar of Andalusian origin who, after studying in his home town of Qurtuba (Cordoba) travelled to the East and settled in Alexandria, Egypt. He was Ash'ari in his 'aqida and Maliki in his fiqh. He is primarily famous for al-Mufhim, which is a commentary on his abridgement of Muslim's Sahih. Here is the translation.

From Ibn ‘Umar that the Prophet (saw) said: “Whoever raises arms against us is not one of us.”

Abu ’l-‘Abbas al-Qurtubi said:
His statement “Whoever raises arms against us is not one of us” means the one who raises arms against us to fight. This is explained in another narration: “Whoever draws his sword is not one of us.” [By “us”] the Prophet (saw) meant himself and any other Muslims.

There is no doubt that whoever fights a war against the Prophet (saw) is a disbeliever. In that sense his statement (saw) “he is not one of us” means he is not a Muslim but a disbeliever. The one who fights a war against Muslims intentionally considering it permissible without relying on any interpretation [of the texts] is likewise a disbeliever, as above. The one who is not like that [but has attacked Muslims] has committed a major sin if he is not basing himself on a solid interpretation.

It has already been mentioned that the way of the People of Truth is that no Muslim is judged to be a disbeliever if he commits a major sin except for idolatry. Consequently his (saw) statement “he is not one of us” in a case like this is understood to mean “he is not on our path and our law” because the example and law of the Muslims is to keep in touch and to show mercy to one another. It is not to split up and fight one another.

This is similar to his (saw) saying: “The one who cheats us is not one of us” and the like. The point is to prevent and restrain [Muslims] from falling into things like that, just like the father says to his child if he differs from him “I am not from you and you are not from me.” As the poet said:
If you commit a crime against a lion
I am not from you and you are not from me.

(al-Mufhim li ma ashkala min talkhis Muslim by Abu'l-'Abbas al-Qurtubi, vol. 1, pp. 299-300).