and of His Messenger and the believers, than those who have always been disbelievers, in many respects. They must be put to death unless they return to what they abandoned. So long as they remain apostates, it is impermissible, by consensus, to grant them a covenant of protection, a truce, or safe-conduct; their captives may neither be released nor exchanged for money or men; their slaughtered animals may not be eaten, their women may not be married, and they may not be enslaved. Those among them who fight and those who do not—including the decrepit elderly, the blind, and the infirm—are to be put to death, by agreement of the scholars. The same applies to their women according to the majority.

By contrast, someone who has always been a disbeliever may be granted safe-conduct or a truce. According to the majority, if taken captive, he may be released without ransom or exchanged for ransom. If he belongs to the People of the Book, he may be granted a covenant of protection; their food may be eaten and their women married. Their women are not to be killed unless they participate in fighting through words or deeds, by agreement of the scholars. Likewise, according to the majority of scholars, only those among them who are counted among combatants may be killed, as the Sunnah indicates.

Thus, an apostate disbeliever is in a worse position, in both religious and worldly terms, than a disbeliever who has remained in his disbelief. Among these people are apostates whose numbers only Allah can reckon. These, then, are two groups.

There are also among them people who were disbelievers and then professed affiliation with Islam without committing themselves to its laws, such as establishing prayer, giving zakat, performing pilgrimage to the House, and refraining from shedding the blood of