and strove alongside you—then they are of you.” [al-Anfāl: 75]; and in His statement, “Those who followed them with excellence” [al-Tawbah: 100]; and in His statement Most High, “And others among them who have not yet joined them. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise” [al-Jumuʿah: 3].

His statement, “You did not spur on either horses or camels to obtain it,” means that you neither set horses nor camels in motion nor drove them onward. Hence, the jurists said that fayʾ is what is taken from the disbelievers without fighting, for spurring horses and camels into action constitutes fighting.

It is called fayʾ because Allah, Glorious and Exalted, restored it to the believers (1)—that is, He returned it to them from the disbelievers. The fundamental principle is that Allah Most High created wealth only as an aid to worshipping Him, for He created His creatures solely to worship Him. Those who disbelieve in Him have therefore rendered their lives—which they did not devote to His worship—and their wealth—which they did not use to aid His worship—lawful for His believing servants (2), who worship Him. He restored to them (3) what was rightfully theirs, just as a man is given back an inheritance wrongfully seized from him, even if he had never previously taken possession of it.

This includes the jizyah levied upon Jews and Christians; wealth agreed upon in a peace settlement with the enemy or presented by them as a gift to the Muslim ruler (4), such as tribute conveyed from Christian lands and similar territories; what is taken from merchants from enemy territory, namely the tithe; and from merchants