Thus, he may not wrong another person by killing him to avoid being killed himself. Indeed, if he does so, both the coercer and the person coerced are liable to execution in retaliation according to most scholars, including Ahmad, Mālik, and al-Shāfi‘ī in one of his two opinions. According to his other opinion, only the coercer is liable to execution in retaliation, as also held by Abū Hanīfah and Muhammad.
Another view holds that liability falls upon the coerced person who directly committed the killing, as reported from Zufar. Abū Yūsuf requires compensation through blood money instead of execution in retaliation, which he does not impose.
Muslim narrated in his Sahīh, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), the account of the people of the trench, which includes the following:
“The boy was instructed to bring about his own death so that the religion might prevail.”
For this reason, the four imams permitted a Muslim to plunge into the ranks of the disbelievers, even if he considers it most likely that they will kill him, provided this benefits the Muslims. We have discussed this issue at length elsewhere.
If a man may undertake an action that he believes will lead to his death for the benefit of jihad—even though killing oneself is graver than killing another—then it is all the more permissible to undertake an action leading to another’s death for a benefit to the religion that cannot otherwise be attained, and to avert the harm of an enemy who corrupts religious and worldly affairs and whose harm cannot otherwise be repelled.
And if the Sunnah and scholarly consensus agree that a Muslim assailant may be killed when his assault cannot otherwise be repelled, even if the property he seeks to take amounts to only a qīrāt—a small fraction of a dinar—as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith:
“Whoever is killed defending his property is a martyr; whoever is killed defending his life is a martyr; and whoever is killed defending his family is a martyr,”
then how much more