the school of Imam Ahmad and those of other imams.

The actual meaning of the verse is this: if someone heeds others who have not come to the Messenger, the Messenger is not obliged to judge between them. This includes a person under covenant—whether granted safe-conduct or otherwise—who refers matters back to his rulers and scholars in their own territory. It also includes a protected non-Muslim subject who accepts a judgment if it accords with his wishes, but otherwise returns to his leaders and scholars. Such a person chooses between obeying the judgment of Allah and His Messenger and turning away from it.

As for someone who submits only to the judgment of Allah and His Messenger and has no alternative to it—such as a wronged person seeking protection against his oppressor, with no one of his own religion to defend him—the verse grants no choice in such a case. If the covenant of protection requires defending him against non-Muslim belligerents, then it should, with even greater reason, require defending him against those among the protected non-Muslim subjects who wrong him.

Likewise, if someone seeking a judgment from a judge or scholar is among the hypocrites who choose between accepting what the Quran and Sunnah teach and disregarding it, the judge or scholar is not obliged to judge between them. This is part of the reasoning of many of the early generations who would not relate the Prophet’s hadiths—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—to those who openly professed religious innovations.

The same applies to someone whose aim in seeking a fatwa or judgment is not the truth, but merely to find someone who agrees with his desires, whoever that person may be and whether what he says is true or false. This is heeding something other than that with which Allah sent His Messenger; for Allah sent His Messenger only