16
Seventh Proof for the Prohibition of Fighting Those Disbelievers Who Do Not Fight
His consistent practice was that anyone from the disbelievers who concluded a truce with him would not be fought. The works of sīrah (prophetic biography), hadith, tafsīr (Qur’anic exegesis), fiqh (jurisprudence), and maghāzī (campaign chronicles) all affirm this, and the reports about it are mass-transmitted.
He never initiated hostilities against any unbeliever; had Allah commanded him to kill every disbeliever, he would have begun by putting them to the sword. (1)
(1) Ibn al-Qayyim writes in Hidayat al-Hayara, 1/12: “The Prophet fought only those who fought and attacked him; anyone who offered him peace or a truce was left unharmed … Whoever studies the Prophet’s sira will see that he never forced anyone to adopt his religion. He fought only those who fought him, and as for anyone who concluded a truce with him, he would not fight them as long as they respected that truce and did not break their covenant … Likewise, when he made a ten-year truce with Quraysh, he did not begin hostilities until they started fighting him and broke the treaty; only then did he invade them in their own land. Before that, they had been the ones attacking him, as they did at Uhud, the Trench, and even at Badr, where they came out to fight him—and had they withdrawn he would not have fought them. The point is that the Prophet never compelled anyone to enter his religion at all; people embraced it by their own choice and willingness.” He further says in Ahkam Ahl al-Dhimmah, 1/79: “Rather, we fight only those who wage war on us; this was the practice of the Messenger of Allah in—"
[الدَّلِيلُ السَّابِعُ عَلَى تَحْرِيمِ قِتَالِ مَنْ لَمْ يُقَاتِلْ مِنَ الكُفَّارِ]
وَكَانَتْ سِيرتُهُ: أَنَّ كُلَّ مَنْ هَادَنَهُ مِنَ الكُفَّارِ لا يُقَاتِلُهُ، وَهَذِهِ كُتُبُ السِّير، والحَدِيث، والتَّفْسِير، والفِقْه، والمَغَازِي تَنْطِقُ بِهَذَا، وَهَذَا مُتَوَاتِرٌ مِنْ سِيرَتِهِ.
فَهُوَ لَمْ يَبْدأْ أَحَدًا مِنَ الكُفَّارِ بِقِتَالٍ، وَلَو كَانَ اللهُ أَمَرَهُ أَنْ يَقْتُلَ كُلَّ كَافِرٍ لَكَانَ يَبْتَدِئُهُمْ بِالْقَتْلِ والقِتَالِ (١).
(١) قال ابن القيم في هداية الحيارى (١/ ١٢): (وإنما كان يقاتل من يحاربه ويقاتله، وأما من سالمه وهادنه فلم يقاتله ... ومن تأمل سيرة النبي ﷺ تبين له أنه لم يكره أحدًا على دينه قط، وأنه إنما قاتل من قاتله، وأما من هادنه فلم يقاتله ما دام مقيمًا على هدنته لم ينقض عهده ... وكذلك لما هادن قريشًا عشر سنين لم يبدءهم بقتال حتى بدؤواهم بقتاله، ونقضوا عهده، فعند ذلك غزاهم في ديارهم، وكانواهم يغزونه قبل ذلك كما قصدوه يوم أحد ويوم الخندق، ويوم بدر أيضًا هم جاؤوا لقتاله ولو انصرفوا عنه لم يقاتلهم، والمقصود: أنه ﷺ لم يكره أحدًا على الدخول في دينه البتة، وإنما دخل الناس في دينه اختيارًا وطوعًا). وقال أيضًا في أحكام أهل الذمة (١/ ٧٩): (بل نقاتل من حاربنا، وهذه كانت سيرة رسول الله في =