belongs wholly to Allah. Consequently, it fights only those who fight; it never kills non-combatants—the elderly, monks, hired workers, women, children, and the like—anyone who has not taken up arms.
It is a policy that does not sow corruption on earth: it neither demolishes homes nor destroys inhabited areas nor fells trees, except for a genuine interest as determined by the ruler.
It is a policy founded upon securing benefits and warding off harms.
It is a policy that weighs the Muslims’ condition of strength or weakness—as will be shown. Anyone who ponders the Quran, the Sunnah, and the practice of this community’s warriors will grasp this fully; and history bears eloquent witness.
A number of authors have written on this subject, yet I have found no one who has discussed it with such precise scholarship—supported by both transmitted evidence and rational proof—except Shaykh al-Islam in this succinct treatise of his.