(29) “Fight those among the People of the Scripture who do not believe in Allah or the Last Day, who do not regard as forbidden what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and who do not adhere to the religion of truth, until they pay the jizyah by hand while humbled.”
This verse commands that the disbelievers among the Jews and Christians be fought—those “who do not believe in Allah or the Last Day” with a sound faith borne out by their conduct and deeds; who do not regard as forbidden what Allah has forbidden and thus do not follow His law concerning prohibitions; and “who do not adhere to the religion of truth,” meaning that they do not follow the true religion. Although they claim to follow a religion, theirs is not the true religion. It is either a corrupted religion that Allah never prescribed in the first place, or an abrogated religion that Allah once prescribed and then replaced with the law of Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). After its abrogation, continuing to adhere to it is no longer permissible.
Allah therefore commanded His Messenger to fight these people and urged him to do so, for they call others to their beliefs and, because they are People of the Scripture, cause people great harm.
He set the endpoint of that fighting at the point when “they pay the jizyah”—that is, the payment made in return for the Muslims ceasing to fight them and allowing them to live among the Muslims with their persons and property secure. It is collected from them annually, each according to his means, whether wealthy, poor, or of moderate means, as was done by the Commander of the Faithful Umar ibn al-Khattāb and other Muslim rulers.
His words “by hand” mean that they must offer it (1) while in a state of subjection and powerlessness, paying it with their own hands. They may not send it with a servant or anyone else; rather, it is accepted only from their own hands, “while humbled.”
If they are in this condition and ask the Muslims to allow them to remain in return for the jizyah—subject to Muslim rule and authority, with the Muslims secure from their harm and sedition—and if they submit to the conditions imposed upon them by the Muslims, which remove their might and arrogance and entail their humiliation and abasement, then the ruler or his deputy must conclude the covenant with them.
If, however, they fail to fulfill these conditions and do not pay the jizyah by hand while humbled, it is not permissible to allow them to remain in return for the jizyah. Rather, they are to be fought until they embrace Islam.
The majority of scholars who maintain that the jizyah may be collected only from the People of the Scripture cite this verse as evidence, since Allah mentions collecting the jizyah only from them.
As for others, Allah mentions only fighting them until they embrace Islam. The Magians were, however, treated like the People of the Scripture with respect to collecting the jizyah and allowing them to remain in Muslim lands, for the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) collected the jizyah from the Magians of Hajar, and the Commander of the Faithful Umar later collected it from the Persian Magians.
It has also been said that the jizyah may be collected from all disbelievers, whether or not they are People of the Scripture. This is because the verse was revealed after the fighting against the Arab polytheists had concluded and the fighting against the People of the Scripture and others like them had begun. The restriction therefore merely describes the circumstances as they were and is not intended to convey an exclusionary implication.
This is further supported by the fact that the jizyah was collected from the Magians even though they were not People of the Scripture. It has also been recurrently transmitted from the Muslims—the Companions and those who came after them—that they offered those whom they fought one of three alternatives: Islam, payment of the jizyah, or the sword, without distinguishing between a person of the Scripture and anyone else.