and spend it on sinful acts, then such people are evildoers who deserve the threatened punishment. If their purpose is that the word of Allah should be supreme and that religion should be devoted to Allah, then they are fighting in His cause. However, if they commit major sins, they have both good deeds and evil deeds. But if they raid the Muslims living there, then they spread corruption in the land and wage war against Allah and His Messenger, deserving severe punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And Allah knows best.

He—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—was asked:

“About a soldier serving under a commander: the sultan went out hunting and ordered that some Arabs be plundered and killed. He went up the mountain and found thirty men, who fled. The commander said, ‘Ride after them!’ They turned back to fight their pursuers, and the soldier struck one of them, who died. Is he liable for anything or not?”

He answered:

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all worlds. If the man being pursued belonged to the corrupt, oppressive faction who had renounced obedience, broken away from the Muslim community, and unlawfully attacked Muslims’ lives and property, and they were being pursued so that the command of Allah and His Messenger might be enforced upon them, then it is permissible to fight the one among them who turned back to fight. Whoever killed him in the circumstances described bears no liability. Indeed, in the case of those who wage war, the same ruling applies to an accomplice as to a direct perpetrator according to the majority of leading scholars, including Abū Hanīfah, Mālik, and Ahmad. Whoever assists them is subject to the same ruling as they are.