—they are subject to the same ruling as highway brigands.
The third category consists of people who rise up against the Imam and attempt to depose him on the basis of a plausible interpretive claim, whether that claim proves right or wrong, while possessing real force and protection. These are the bughāt (rebels). The Imam must first communicate with them, consider the demands they lay out and the grievances they cite; if they point to an injustice, he must remove it, and if they raise a doubt, he must clarify it. Should they then desist, all is well; otherwise he is obliged to fight them, and his subjects are obliged to support him.
The fourth category is the Kharijites, who pronounce Muslims unbelievers on account of sin and deem lawful their blood and property. Such people are flagrant sinners, and it is permissible to initiate combat against them.
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Anyone from the Muslims who rises for one of these four motives has left obedience to the Imam and separated himself from the Muslim community. If he dies in that state, he dies the death of the people of the Age of Ignorance—people without an Imam to organize them and without a unifying word.
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Shaykh al-Islām said: The majority of Muslims distinguish between the Kharijites, the rebels, and those who act on an honest interpretive judgment; this is what is well known from the Companions.
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Shaykh al-Islām also said: Obedience to Allah and His Messenger is obligatory upon everyone, and obedience to those in authority is likewise obligatory because Allah has commanded it. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger by obeying the rulers, his reward is with Allah; whereas the one who obeys them only for the worldly benefit he receives—so that if they give him something he obeys, but if they withhold it he disobeys—will have no share in the Hereafter. In short, obedience to the rulers in matters that do not involve disobedience to Allah is obligatory, and advising them falls under mutual cooperation in righteousness and piety.
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Shaykh al-Islām added: It is clear that Allah has favored men over women, so a woman may not be placed on an equal footing with a man in matters that are the special province of men, such as public office, for the Prophet ﷺ said: “A people who entrust their affairs to a woman will never prosper.” As for a woman’s attendance at gatherings of men, if there is benefit in her presence and she remains properly veiled and modest, there is no harm in it.