If he is prohibited from collecting it despite the invalidity of his authority, he may neither collect it nor compel payment, and the payer is not discharged by paying him if he knows that he has been prohibited. As for whether the payer is discharged when he is unaware of the prohibition, there are two views, based on the issue of an agent’s being dismissed when he acts without knowledge of his dismissal; there are two narrations concerning this. This, then, is the ruling concerning fayʾ property.

As for ghanīmah (war booty), it has more categories and rulings, because it is the basis from which fayʾ branches off. It comprises four categories: prisoners of war, captives, lands, and property.

Prisoners of war are the male combatants among the disbelievers whom the Muslims have captured. If they persist in disbelief, the imam—or the commander of jihad whom the imam has appointed over them—has discretion to do what is most beneficial in their case, choosing one of four options: killing them, enslaving them, ransoming them in exchange for money or prisoners, or releasing them graciously without ransom.

If they embrace Islam, killing them is no longer permitted, while they immediately become slaves; and the choice between enslavement, gracious release, and ransom is no longer available. This is the apparent meaning of Aḥmad’s statement in the narration of Abū Ṭālib: “As for the Arabs, if they embrace Islam after being captured, they come under the authority and possession of the Muslims, their persons are treated as booty subject to the Muslims’ shares, and they are distributed among those whom Allah has mentioned.” This is because ransom is a punishment imposed on account of disbelief, so it falls away with Islam, just as killing does. Enslavement does not follow the same ruling, because it is not an obligatory punishment, as shown by the fact that it applies to women and children, who are not subject to punishment.

Once his discretion among these four options is established, he examines their circumstances and exercises his judgment concerning them. If he finds one of them to possess great strength and effectiveness in combat, despairs of his embracing Islam, and knows that killing him would weaken his people, he puts him to death without mutilation.