that brings you humiliation?”

He replied:

“You must testify that our slain are in Paradise and yours are in the Fire. We shall take your mounts from you—meaning horses—and your weapons, until the successor of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the believers decide otherwise.”

This, then, is what must be done with such people when they profess obedience: someone is to be sent to teach them the ordinances of Islam, lead them in the prayers, and establish among them those Islamic ordinances that will benefit them. Alternatively, some of those who are obedient are to be enlisted in the Muslim army and incorporated into the Muslim community; or the weapons with which they fight are to be taken from them, and they are to be prohibited from riding horses; or they are to lay down their weapons until their conduct is set right; or those among them who refuse to commit themselves to the Sharia are to be killed. If they do not respond to Allah and His Messenger, they must be fought until they commit themselves to the manifest ordinances of Islam established by mass transmission. The scholars of the Muslims agree upon this. And Allah knows best.

Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

Concerning the disbursements customarily made by earlier kings and continuing to this day for charitable purposes and acts of devotion, as regular stipends for recipients among the poor and needy in their various circumstances: among them is the poor person who has no wealth; the person with a large family whom he is obliged to support, but whose earnings do not cover their expenses; the person devoted to Allah Most High who has no means of earning a livelihood [and] (1) knows no craft he can practise; and those who are unable to