whom He has exempted from prayer—as is often found among those who profess spiritual poverty, asceticism, adherence to certain shaykhs, and spiritual knowledge—such people must be called upon to repent, by agreement of the imams. If they acknowledge that prayer is obligatory, that suffices; otherwise, they are to be fought. If they persist in denying its obligation until they are killed, they are counted among the apostates. Whoever among them repents and prays is not required to make up the prayers previously omitted, according to the stronger of the two scholarly views. For these people are either apostates or Muslims unaware that prayer is obligatory.

If it is said that they are apostates from Islam, then, according to the majority of scholars, an apostate who returns to Islam does not make up the prayers omitted during apostasy, just as, by scholarly agreement, a disbeliever who embraces Islam does not make up the prayers omitted during disbelief. This is the position of Mālik, Abū Hanīfa, and Ahmad, according to the stronger of the two reports from him. According to the other report, an apostate must make them up, as al-Shāfiʿī held. The former view is stronger.

For among those who apostatized during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, were al-Hārith ibn Qays and a group with him, concerning whom Allah revealed:

“How will Allah guide a people who disbelieved after having believed?”

—the remainder of the verse and the verse that follows it. Others included ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Sarh and those who went out with the disbelievers on the day of Badr, concerning whom He revealed:

“Then your Lord, for those who emigrated after being put to trial, then strove and remained steadfast—surely your Lord, after that, is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”

These people returned to Islam. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Sarh returned to Islam in the year of the Conquest, and the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, accepted his pledge of allegiance. He did not instruct anyone