and forbid them what is wrong. As Moses said to his people:

“O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has ordained for you, and do not turn back, or you will become losers.” They said, “O Moses, there are powerful people in that land, and we will never enter it until they leave. If they leave, then we will enter”—up to His words: “So go, you and your Lord, and fight; we are staying right here.” [Sūrah al-Mā’idah 21–24]

Likewise, Allah Most High said:

“Have you not considered the chiefs of the Children of Israel after Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs, ‘Appoint a king for us, and we will fight in Allah’s cause’? He said, ‘Might you refuse to fight if fighting were prescribed for you?’ They said, ‘Why should we not fight in Allah’s cause when we have been driven from our homes and separated from our children?’” [Sūrah al-Baqarah 246]

Thus, they gave their expulsion from their homes and separation from their children as their reason for fighting. Yet even so, they shrank from the fighting they were commanded to undertake. For this reason, spoils of war were not made lawful for them, nor did they have intercourse with slave women by virtue of ownership.