said:

“Muslims’ lives are equally inviolable; protection granted by the lowest in status among them is binding upon them all; they stand united against others; and their raiding detachments share their spoils with those who remain behind.”

This means that when a detachment goes out from the Muslim army and captures spoils, the army shares in those spoils, because the detachment succeeded through its backing and strength. The detachment, however, receives an additional allotment beyond that of the rest of the army. When a detachment went out at the beginning of a campaign, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would award it an additional quarter after the fifth had been set aside. On their return to their homelands, if a detachment went out, he would award it an additional third after the fifth had been set aside.

Likewise, if the army captured spoils, the detachment would share in them, because it was serving the army’s interests. Thus the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, allotted shares to Talha and al-Zubayr at Badr because he had sent them on a mission serving the army’s interests. The helpers and supporters of a group able to resist being subdued therefore belong to it, sharing its rights and liabilities.

The same applies to those who fight on wrongful grounds without any interpretive justification, such as those fighting out of tribal partisanship and rallying to the calls of pre-Islamic ignorance—Qays and Yaman, for example, and similar groups: both sides are wrongdoers. As the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“When two Muslims confront one another with their swords, both the killer and the one killed are in the Fire.”

He was asked, “O Messenger of Allah, that is the killer, but why the one killed?”

He replied, “He intended to kill his companion.”

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim both recorded it in their Sahīh collections. Each faction is liable for the lives and property it has destroyed belonging to the other, even if the individual killer is not identified, because a faction whose members strengthen one another to resist being subdued is like a single person. Concerning this, Allah Most High says:

“Prescribed for you is legal retribution for those murdered.”