This is because fighting rebels is one of the rights owed to Allah, and such a right may not be allowed to lapse. Upholding it within His Sacred Precinct is more fitting than allowing it to lapse there.

As for carrying out the fixed legal penalties in the Sacred Precinct, the matter must be distinguished. If he committed the offense in the Sacred Precinct, the penalty is carried out on him there. If he committed it outside the Sacred Precinct and then sought refuge in it, the penalty is not carried out on him there; rather, he is compelled to leave by refusing to transact or trade with him. Once he leaves, the penalty is carried out on him.

The third ruling is the prohibition of hunting its game⁹ for those in ihram and those not in ihram, whether they are residents of the Sacred Precinct or have entered it. Whoever kills any of its game must pay compensation, even if he is not in ihram, because he has killed game within the Sacred Precinct. Ibn Masūr transmitted from him a report that he does not owe compensation. Likewise, if he shoots from outside the Sacred Precinct at game inside it, he owes compensation, because it was killed within the Sacred Precinct. If game is hunted outside the Sacred Precinct, however, whatever is harmful among predatory animals and the vermin of the earth may be killed.

The fourth ruling is the prohibition of cutting trees that Allah Most High caused to grow there. It is not prohibited to cut what human beings have planted, just as it is not prohibited there to slaughter domesticated animals. It is not permissible to pasture animals on the vegetation of the Sacred Precinct. In a narration from al-Faḍl, he said: “No one may cut the grass of the Sacred Precinct.” The compensation for a large tree is a cow, and for a small tree, a sheep. A branch from either is subject to a proportionately reduced compensation from that due for the tree itself. Regrowth resulting from cutting the tree at its base does not cancel the liability for the original tree.