395 – Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I have been commanded to fight the people until they bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, establish the prayer, and give the zakāt. Once they have done that, their lives and their property are protected from me, except for a right sanctioned by Islam; their reckoning rests with Allah the Exalted.” Agreed upon.

396 – Abū ʿAbd-Allāh Ṭāriq ibn Ashyam (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘Whoever proclaims Lā ilāha illā Allah (there is no god but Allah) and rejects whatever is worshiped besides Allah, his wealth and his blood are inviolable, and his account is with Allah the Exalted.’” Reported by Muslim.

397 – Abū Maʿbad al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, ‘Tell me, Messenger of Allah, if I meet a man from the disbelievers and we fight, and he strikes one of my hands with his sword and severs it, then he takes refuge behind a tree and says, “I have submitted to Allah.” May I kill him after he has said that?’ He answered, ‘Do not kill him.’ I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, he cut off one of my hands and only then said it!’ He replied, ‘Do not kill him, for if you kill him he will be in your position before you killed him, and you will be in his position before he uttered the word he has spoken.’” Agreed upon.

The meaning of “he will be in your position” is: his blood becomes protected and he is judged a Muslim. The meaning of “you will be in his position” is: your blood becomes subject to lawful retribution by his heirs—not that you would share his disbelief. And Allah knows best.

398 – Usāmah ibn Zayd (may Allah be pleased with them both) said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched us to al-Hurqa of Juhaynah. We raided the people at their water in the early morning. I and a man from the Anṣār caught up with one of them; when we overpowered him he said, ‘Lā ilāha illā Allah.’ The Anṣārī held back, but I thrust him with my spear and killed him. When we returned to Madinah, the matter reached the Prophet ﷺ and he said to me, ‘Usāmah, did you kill him after he said Lā ilāha illā Allah?’ I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, he said it only to seek protection.’ He repeated, ‘Did you kill him after he said Lā ilāha illā Allah?’—and he kept repeating it to me until I wished I had not…"