unless they submit earlier of their own accord. Once the fighting has ended and their danger has passed, their weapons and horses are to be returned to them; these may not be used in battle except when necessity demands. Nor may they be fought with massively destructive means—such as fire or siege engines—except in case of necessity, namely when they themselves use such means or have surrounded us.

No help is to be sought against them from a non-Muslim, nor from anyone who holds that they may be killed while in flight. If the rebels enlist a hostile force against us and grant them safe-conduct, that guarantee is not binding on us, though—according to the sound opinion—it is binding on the rebels themselves. Should people of the dhimma aid the rebels while knowing that fighting us is forbidden, their pact is annulled; if they were coerced, it is not. The same ruling applies if they say, “We thought it was permissible,” or “We believed the rebels were in the right”: their covenant is void and they are to be fought as rebels.

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The imam must be a Muslim, legally accountable, free, male, a Qurayshi, a mujtahid (qualified to exercise independent legal reasoning), courageous, judicious, and possessed of hearing, sight, and speech. The imamate is contracted by a pledge of allegiance; the sounder view is that it is the pledge of allegiance given by the ahl al-ḥall wal-ʿaqd—the scholars, leaders, and notables able to assemble—who must meet the qualifications of legal witnesses. It is likewise established by the imam’s appointment of a successor; if he assigns the decision to a council, that counts as an appointment, and they choose one of their number. It is also established by the seizure of power by someone who fulfils the conditions—and, on the more reliable opinion, even by one who is dissolute or ignorant.

I say: If a person claims to have paid his zakat to the rebels, he is believed upon taking an oath; but if he claims to have paid jizya, he is not believed, according to the correct view, and the same applies to kharāj (land tax) on the sounder opinion. He is believed in matters of a ḥadd-punishment unless proven otherwise by evidence, and the absence of marks on his body carries no weight. Allah knows best.