53 – Book of Rebels

When a party of Muslims seizes a town and withdraws from obedience to the imam, he first calls them back to the community, clarifies the flaws in their reasoning, and does not initiate hostilities unless they strike first. If they begin the fighting, he combats them until their ranks are dispersed. Should they have a supporting force (fīʾa) to which they can retreat, he may lawfully finish off their wounded and pursue those who flee; but if they lack such a force, he neither kills their wounded nor follows their fugitives. Their women and children are not taken captive, their property is not treated as booty, and it is permissible to fight them with their own weapons if the Muslims need them. The imam impounds their assets, returning none of them and distributing none of them until they repent, after which he restores their wealth.

Whatever the rebels have collected from the lands they dominated—whether land-tax (kharāj) or tithe (ʿushr)—is not taken a second time by the imam. If they have already spent it in its proper channels, that suffices for anyone from whom it was collected. If they did not spend it correctly, the imam issues a fatwa to the landholders that, before Allah, they must pay it again.