For these people have banded together to destroy lives and property and ruin crops and offspring; their aim is neither to uphold a religion nor to establish a kingdom.

They are like brigands who take refuge in a fortress, a cave, a mountaintop, a valley bottom, or somewhere similar, robbing those who pass their way. When the ruler’s troops come to bring them into obedience to the Muslims and their collective authority so that the prescribed punishments may be enforced, they fight and repel them. Such are the Bedouins who rob pilgrims or other travellers along the roads, or the mountain dwellers who shelter on mountaintops or in caves to engage in highway robbery. Likewise are the confederates who have allied themselves to rob travellers between Syria and Iraq, calling this “al-nahīda.”

They are to be fought as we have explained. However, fighting them is not equivalent to fighting disbelievers if they are not themselves disbelievers. Nor may their property be seized unless they have wrongfully taken other people’s property. In that case, they are liable to compensate for it, and an amount equal to what they took is recovered from them, even if we do not know the identity of the actual taker. The same applies if his identity is known, for the supporting accomplice and the direct perpetrator are treated alike, as we have stated. When the actual taker is identified, however, ultimate liability rests with him.

Whatever is recovered from them is returned to its rightful owners. If returning it to them proves impossible, it is used for the public interests of the Muslims, including providing for the force fighting them and other such purposes.

Rather, the purpose of fighting them is to bring them under control so that the prescribed punishments may be enforced and they may be prevented from spreading corruption. Thus, if one of them is severely wounded, he must not be finished off and killed