as a slave owned by a disbelieving master and embraced Islam, he would not be returned to them, for fear that he might revert to disbelief; since he is a slave, his master could take him and force him into disbelief, whereupon he would disbelieve.
His statement: “They are held accountable for their offense against a Muslim involving property, retaliatory execution, and a prescribed legal penalty” means that the pronoun in “they are held accountable” refers to those under treaty with whom we have a covenant. Thus, if they take a Muslim’s property, they must return it; if they kill a Muslim, they are to be put to death if this can be carried out; and if they falsely accuse a Muslim of illicit sexual conduct, they are subject to the prescribed penalty for slander, because they are under treaty.
His statement: “It is permissible to kill their hostages if they kill our hostages” means that if there are hostages between us and them—for sometimes they fear that we may breach the covenant, while we fear that they may breach it—we say, “Give us hostages,” and they likewise say, “Give us hostages”; that is, persons who remain in their custody. If either side acts treacherously, these hostages are killed. Thus, if they kill our hostages, we may kill their hostages.
If someone were to say, “How can we kill their hostages when Allah the Exalted says, ‘No bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another’ [al-Isra’ 17:15]?” We reply: because the people are a single body, and the offense of one of them is the offense of all of them.
From the author’s words, we understand that it is permissible for us to give hostages to the disbelievers, but only on the condition that they give us hostages as well. As for giving them our men, whom they may kill whenever they wish, while we have no hostages of theirs to kill should they kill our hostages, then there is no doubt that this is impermissible. But if they take hostages from us, we require hostages from them in return.
His statement: “And if their breach of covenant is feared, he informs them that there no longer remains between him