according to the well-known position in Mālik’s school, and in Ahmad’s school in certain cases concerning which reports from him agree, and others concerning which they differ. It is also one of al-Shāfiʿī’s opinions, although they disagree over the details. This is demonstrated by examples from the Sunnah, such as “the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, permitting anyone who discovered someone hunting in the sanctuary of Medina to take that person’s belongings,” and his ordering wine jars to be broken and wineskins to be slit open. Another example is “his ordering Abd Allah ibn Amr to burn his two safflower-dyed garments. He asked him, ‘Should I wash them?’ He replied, ‘No, burn them.’”

Another is “his ordering them, on the day of Khaybar, to break the vessels containing donkey meat. Then, when they sought his permission to pour out their contents instead, he permitted it. When he saw the pots boiling with donkey meat, he ordered them to be broken and their contents poured out. They asked, ‘May we not pour out their contents and wash them?’ He replied, ‘Do so.’” This indicates that either course was permissible, since punishment in this manner was not obligatory.

Other examples include his demolition of the mosque built to cause harm; Moses’ burning of the calf that had been taken as a god; “his doubling, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the financial liability of someone who stole property that was not kept in a secure place”; the reports concerning the burning of the belongings of someone who misappropriated war booty, and depriving a combatant of the spoils of the man he had slain because he had transgressed against the commander; Umar ibn al-Khattāb’s and Ali ibn Abī Tālib’s orders to burn down premises where wine was sold; taking half the wealth of someone who withheld zakat; Uthmān ibn Affān’s burning of Quran manuscripts that differed from the standard codex; Umar ibn al-Khattāb’s burning of the books of the ancients; and his order to burn down the palace that Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqās had built when he wished