he said:

“Whoever is killed defending his property is a martyr, and whoever is killed defending his religion is a martyr.”

Fighting thieves does not constitute civil strife, since everyone supports such resistance, and it causes no widespread harm to anyone other than the wrongdoer. Fighting rulers, by contrast, entails civil strife and widespread evil greater than their injustice. Thus, what is prescribed in such circumstances is patience.

When the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, describes a group as transgressing, whether its transgression is based on an interpretation or not, that description alone neither obliges nor permits fighting it if such fighting constitutes civil strife.

Reflect carefully on this, for it is a matter of great importance that shows how the scriptural texts can be reconciled. It is also the point on which the scholarly judgments of the believers’ scholars, past and present, have differed. Some held that these people should be fought alongside those closer to the truth than they were. Others held that fighting should be avoided when it entails greater evil than refraining from it, as was