He was also asked:

Concerning monks who share in most of the worldly pursuits of other people: they engage in trade, acquire farms and dovecotes, and undertake other activities commonly pursued by people today. Their monasticism consists merely in their clothing, abstaining from marriage and meat, devotional practices involving impurity, and similar observances. Christians who wish to avoid paying the jizya (poll tax) have now begun adopting this form of monasticism to secure exemption from it. They also receive funds from endowments and votive offerings. Is it permissible to collect the jizya from these people or not? Is it permissible to allow them to reside in Muslim lands while exempting them from the jizya or not? Please give us a ruling, and may you be rewarded.

He replied—may Allah be pleased with him:

All praise belongs to Allah.

The monks concerning whom scholars have disagreed over whether they may be killed and whether the jizya may be collected from them are those mentioned in the report transmitted from Abū Bakr al-Siddīq, the successor of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), may Allah be pleased with him. When he sent Yazīd ibn Abī Sufyān as commander for the conquest of Syria, he said in his instructions to him: “You will find people who have