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the jizyah with their own hands, while being humbly subdued (1).
The Prophet ﷺ said, “I have been commanded to fight people until they bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah. When they do so, they have protected their lives and their wealth from me—except where justice requires otherwise—and their reckoning is with Allah.” (2)
This ḥadith merely sets out the limit up to which fighting them is permissible; once they fulfill it, fighting becomes forbidden. In other words, I was only commanded to fight up to this boundary. It is not meant that I was ordered to fight every single person until that point (3), for
(1) Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya writes in al-Safadiyya, 2/321: “Once they have paid the jizya with their own hand while humbled, they have already been fought in the manner prescribed.” Ibn al-Qayyim adds in Ahkam Ahl al-Dhimma, 1/79: “The aim is that the word of Allah be supreme and that the entire religion belong to Allah. Allowing them to remain under Muslim authority in exchange for the jizya in no way contradicts this aim, just as the continued presence of the People of the Book paying jizya among Muslims does not undermine the supremacy of Allah’s word nor the exclusivity of religion to Him.”
(2) Reported by al-Bukhari, nos. 25 and 392, and by Muslim, nos. 20 and 21.
(3) Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya states in Minhaj al-Sunnah, 8/516: “The saying, ‘I have been commanded to fight the people until they declare la ilaha illa Allah (there is no deity but Allah),’ is true, for whoever utters la ilaha illa Allah is never to be fought, whereas whoever…”
الجِزْيَةَ عَنْ يَدٍ وَكَانُوا صَاغِرِين (١).
وَقوْلُ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ: "أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أقاتِلَ النَّاسَ حَتَّى يَشْهَدُوْا أَنْ لا إِلَهَ إِلَّا الله وَأَنَّي رَسُوْلُ الله، فَإِذَا فَعَلُوْا ذَلِكَ عَصَمُوْا مِنِّي دِمَاءَهمْ وَأَمْوَالَهمْ إِلَّا بِحَقِّهَا وَحِسَابُهُمْ عَلَى الله" (٢). هُوَ ذِكْرٌ لِلْغَايَةِ الَّتِي يُبَاحُ قِتَالُهُمْ إِلَيهَا، بِحَيثُ إِذَا فَعَلُوْهَا حَرُمَ قِتَالهمْ.
وَالمَعْنَى: أَنِّي لَمْ أُؤْمَرْ بِالقِتَالِ إِلَّا إِلى هَذِهِ الغَايَةِ.
ليسَ المُرَادُ: أَنِّي أُمِرْتُ أن أُقاتِلَ كُلَّ أحَدٍ إِلَى هَذه الغَايَة (٣)، فَإِنَّ
(١) قال شيخ الإسلام في الصفدية (٢/ ٣٢١): (إذا أعطوا الجزية عن يد وهم صاغرون فقد قوتلوا القتال المأمور به). وقال ابن القيم في أحكام أهل الذمة (١/ ٧٩): (والمقصود: إنما هو أن تكون كلمة الله هي العليا، ويكون الدين كله لله، وليس في إبقائهم بالجزية ما يناقض هذا المعنى، كما أن إبقاء أهل الكتاب بالجزية بين ظهور المسلمين لا ينافي كون كلمة الله هي العليا وكون الدين كله لله).
(٢) أخرجه البخاري (ح/ ٢٥، ٣٩٢)، ومسلم (ح / ٢٠، ٢١).
(٣) قال شيخ الإسلام في منهاج السنة (٨/ ٥١٦): (وقوله: "أمرت أن أقاتل الناس حتى يقولوا لا إله إلا الله" حق، فإن من قال لا إله إلا الله لم يقاتل بحال، ومن =