…when they violated their treaty and were the first to take up arms against him, he fought them—granting amnesty to some, expelling others, and killing others still. Likewise, after he concluded the ten-year truce with Quraysh, he did not initiate hostilities until they launched an attack and broke the pact; only then did he march against them in their own territory. Before that, they had repeatedly marched out to fight him—at Uhud, the Trench, and even at Badr it was they who came seeking battle—and had they withdrawn, he would not have fought them. The point is that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, never forced anyone to enter his religion; people embraced it voluntarily and by choice. Ibn al-Qayyim states in Ahkam Ahl al-Dhimmah, 1/79: “Killing is prescribed only in response to armed aggression, not merely for disbelief. Therefore women, children, the chronically ill, the blind, and monks who do not fight are not to be killed; we fight only those who wage war against us. This was the conduct of the Messenger of Allah with all peoples: he fought those who fought him until they entered his religion, made peace with him, or submitted to his authority by paying jizyah. He gave the same instructions to his detachments and armies when they engaged the enemy, as related in the hadith of Buraydah. Thus, whenever the unbelievers stopped fighting the Muslims, concluded peace, and paid the jizyah in a state of submission, the arrangement served the interests of both Muslims and polytheists. For the Muslims, the money collected strengthened Islam while humiliating disbelief, which was more beneficial than leaving the unbelievers without jizyah. For the polytheists, remaining alive left room for them to embrace Islam later, once they had witnessed its banners and proofs or heard its message; inevitably, some of them would then enter Islam.”