If they do any of these things, or any part thereof, this constitutes a breach of the covenant according to one of the two reports. In the narration of Abū al-Ḥārith, he said concerning a Christian who forcibly had intercourse with a Muslim woman: “He is to be killed; this is not what they were given a treaty for. If she consented to him, he is also to be killed, and she is subject to the ḥadd punishment.” In the narration of Ḥanbal, he said: “Anyone who says something containing an offensive allusion to the Lord—Exalted is He—is to be killed, whether he is a Muslim or a disbeliever.” In the narration of Abū Ṭālib, he said concerning a Jew who insulted the Prophet ﷺ: “He is to be killed. He has breached the covenant.” There is another report, however, which states: “The covenant is breached only by refusing to pay the jizya and to submit to the enforcement of our laws.” In the narration of Mūsā ibn ʿĪsā al-Mawṣilī, he said concerning a polytheist who falsely accused a Muslim of fornication: “He is to be beaten.”

Likewise, in the narration of al-Maymūnī, concerning a man from the People of the Book who falsely accused a Muslim slave of fornication and mistreated him, he said: “He is to be beaten as the judge deems appropriate.” The apparent meaning of this is that he did not deem a dhimmi to have breached the covenant by falsely accusing a Muslim, even though this causes harm to Muslims.

As for matters that cause neither harm to Muslims nor dishonor to Islam—such as openly practicing a reprehensible matter in Muslim territory; establishing synagogues and churches in Muslim territory; reciting from their books aloud; ringing bells; building higher than Muslims; publicly displaying wine and pigs; and failing to refrain from the forms of imitation of Muslims that they had been required to avoid in their clothing, mounts, kunyas, and hairstyles—is it a duty for them to refrain from these things, or are they merely recommended to do so? In the narration of Abū al-Ḥārith, he said: “The dhimmīs should be made to observe the forelocks and zunnār belts, thereby being humiliated.”