secluded themselves in hermitages; leave them undisturbed in what they have secluded themselves to do. You will also find people who have shaved the crowns of their heads; strike those shaven parts with the sword, for Allah says:

‘Fight the leaders of disbelief, for they have no regard for their oaths, so that they may desist.’”

He forbade killing the former only because they are people who have withdrawn from others and confined themselves to hermitages. Each is called a recluse. They give their coreligionists no assistance whatsoever in anything harmful to Muslims, nor do they mingle with them in their worldly affairs. Rather, each contents himself with enough to subsist on. Scholars therefore disagreed over killing them, just as they disagreed over killing those who do not harm Muslims by deed or word, such as the blind, the chronically disabled, the elderly, and others like them, as well as women and children.

The majority say that only those who assist them in fighting in some way may be killed; otherwise, they are treated like women and children.

Some, however, say that disbelief alone makes killing lawful, and that women and children were excepted only because they are property. The collection of the jizya is likewise determined on this basis.

As for a monk who assists his coreligionists by deed or word—for example, by offering counsel to which they turn in matters of warfare, or by providing some form of encouragement to fight—scholars agree that he is to be killed if he is overpowered, and that the jizya is collected from him, even if he is a recluse living alone in his place of worship. How much more, then, does this apply to those who are like other Christians in their livelihoods, their mingling with people, and their acquisition of wealth through trade, agriculture, and crafts,