(1) Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya affirms in Majmuʿ al-Fatawa, 28:354: “God has permitted the taking of life only to the extent required for the welfare of His creatures … Whoever does not prevent the Muslims from establishing the religion of God, the harm of his disbelief concerns him alone … Accordingly, the Sharia obliges fighting the unbelievers, but it does not oblige killing every individual under Muslim control.” He also states in Majmuʿ al-Fatawa, 25:102: “With Imam Ahmad, the grounds that make killing permissible are of several kinds. For the original unbeliever, permission depends on either the presence of harm from him or the absence of any benefit in him. The first refers to armed or verbal hostility; therefore, one must not kill those who show no hostility at all—women, children, monks, the blind, the chronically ill, and the like—as this is also the opinion of the majority.” (2) The words in brackets are an editorial addition necessitated by the context and are found elsewhere in Shaykh al-Islam’s works in exactly this form. He says in Al-Sarim al-Maslul, 2:319: “Disbelief renders one’s blood permissible but does not in every case require that the unbeliever be killed, for he may be granted safety …”