obligatory. Thus, the conditions are five. The condition that they be a group may also be understood from the word “men.”
The inhabitants of a town who abandon both of them are to be fought, …
His statement, “The inhabitants of a town who abandon both of them are to be fought”: it is the imam who fights them until they give the adhān. This is a disciplinary measure intended to uphold this obligation; it does not make their blood lawful. Therefore, those of them who flee are not pursued, their wounded are not finished off, their property is not taken as spoils, and their offspring are not taken captive, for they are Muslims. They are fought only as a disciplinary measure.
The evidence for this is that the adhān and iqāmah are signs of Muslim lands. Whenever the Prophet ﷺ set out to raid a people, he would wait until the time for prayer came. If he heard an adhān, he would refrain; otherwise, he would fight them (1). Thus, they are among the manifest rites of Islam.
His statement, “abandon both of them,” may mean that they abandon them both, or that they abandon one of them. If they abandon both, or abandon the adhān, then fighting them is plainly warranted, because the adhān is among the manifest signs. If they abandon the iqāmah, it is possible that they are to be fought, because it too is a manifest sign; however, it is not like the adhān, due to the Prophet’s ﷺ statement: