The late authoritative Syrian scholar, Mohamed Said Ramadan Al-Bouti, followed the same thinking, as he "comments that if Qur’ān 9:5 is understood to command the fighting of polytheists until their death or their acceptance of Islam, then such a command is countermanded by the very next verse that exhorts Muslims to offer refuge and safe conduct to polytheists while they are in their state of polytheism. He dismisses as irresponsibly arbitrary the view of those who suggest that Qur’ān 9:5 abrogates Qur’ān 9:6; this goes against the usual rule of abrogation that a later verse may supersede an earlier verse, and he stresses that their understanding of Qur’ān 9:5 contradicts other, more numerous verses of the Qur’ān that were later revelations and the praxis of the Companions."[17]