peace and blessings be upon him—had almost given some of the dates of Madinah to certain unbelievers who had joined the Confederates in order to appease them, yet he did not agree to the quantity they asked for until Allah granted victory by His help.

Those who allow such a payment only when the Muslims fear extermination analogize it to the unanimous permission to ransom Muslim captives, for in that circumstance the Muslims themselves stand in the position of prisoners.

Section Seven
Why Are They Fought?

As for the reason they are fought, the Muslims concur that the objective of waging war against the People of the Book—apart from any among Quraysh or the Arab Christians—is one of two things: either they enter Islam, or they pay the jizyah, in keeping with the Almighty’s words:

“Fight those who do not believe in Allah or the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and who do not adopt the religion of truth—among those who were given the Scripture—until they pay the jizyah with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” (al-Tawbah 9:29)

Likewise, the vast majority of jurists agree that jizyah may be taken from the Magians, relying on the Prophet’s statement—peace and blessings be upon him—“Treat them as you treat the People of the Book.”

They differ, however, with respect to polytheists who are neither People of the Book nor Magians: is the jizyah to be accepted from them or not?

• Some scholars, among them Mālik, hold that it is taken from every idolater.
• Others exclude the Arab idolaters.
• Al-Shāfiʿī, Abū Thawr, and a group of scholars maintain that it is accepted only from the People of the Book and the Magians.

The source of their disagreement lies in the apparent conflict between general and specific texts.

The general evidence consists of the Almighty’s words:

“Fight them until there is no persecution and religion belongs wholly to Allah.” (al-Anfāl 8:39)

and the Prophet’s saying—peace and blessings be upon him—“I have been commanded to fight the people until they declare, ‘There is no deity but Allah.’ When they make that declaration, their blood and property are protected from me, except by its due right, and their reckoning is with Allah.”

The specific evidence is his instruction to the commanders of the expeditions he dispatched against the Arab idolaters—who, it is well known, were not People of the Book—: “When you meet your enemy, invite them to three courses,” among which he mentioned the jizyah. This ḥadith has already been cited.

Those who regard a later general text as abrogating an earlier specific one contend that the jizyah is not accepted from any polytheist other than the People of the Book, for the verses commanding the general fight against the polytheists occur in Sūrat al-Tawbah, revealed in the year of the Conquest, whereas the ḥadith predates the Conquest, as is clear from the Prophet’s call therein to emigrate.

Conversely, those who hold that a general text must be interpreted in light of the specific—whether the general comes before or after, or when the chronological order is uncertain—say that the jizyah may be taken from all polytheists.