to be abandoned.” Al-Dhahabī included him in al-Duafā and said, “Ibn Hibbān abandoned him.” Accordingly, in al-Targhīb (1/256), al-Mundhirī indicated that the hadith is weak.

Note: Shortly before this hadith, under the section “Protected Non-Muslims,” the author—may Allah preserve him—said:

“From the earliest era until today, Muslims have unanimously agreed that protected non-Muslims have the same rights as Muslims and bear the same obligations, except in matters of religion and creed, regarding which Islam leaves them to the religion they profess!”

I say: This is a grave error from such a distinguished author. In my view, it resulted from readily accepting hadiths commonly repeated on people’s tongues without verifying their authenticity. His statement, “They have the same rights as Muslims and bear the same obligations,” is one such widely repeated hadith. Some preachers frequently recite it out of ignorance of both the sunnah and Islamic jurisprudence. Jurists do not view the matter in such absolute terms. How could they, when the majority of them hold that a Muslim is not put to death for killing a protected non-Muslim and that the blood money owed for a protected non-Muslim is half that owed for a Muslim? Nor does a protected non-Muslim possess many of the rights that one Muslim has over another, as indicated by the Prophet’s statement (peace and blessings be upon him): “A Muslim has five rights over another Muslim”—and, in another narration, “six…”—as well as other matters well known from the books of jurisprudence.

Thus, although this commonly repeated hadith has no basis in the books of the sunnah, its unrestricted meaning is also false. Whenever I heard someone quote it, I would think well of him and say: Perhaps, even if he has overlooked the fact that it has no basis, he will not overlook the fact that it cannot be understood without qualification. This continued until I saw that the author—may Allah pardon us and him—had generalized it without making any exception, or stated it absolutely without qualification. Indeed, he expressly declared protected non-Muslims and Muslims to be equal, “except in matters of religion and creed, regarding which Islam leaves them to the religion they profess!”

The source of the error concerning this false hadith is that it was reported regarding the People of the Book when they embraced Islam. The hadith was then detached from its context and applied without qualification, and thus became the cause—