report that they ate what they believed to be cheese made by Christians. This is a matter open to juristic interpretation; someone who relies on scholarly authority may follow a scholar who gives a fatwa according to either view.

As for “their vessels and clothing,” these are treated like the vessels and clothing of the Magians, according to the established positions of the leading jurists. The correct view is that their vessels should not be used until they have been washed. Since the animals they slaughter are carrion, the vessels they use inevitably come into contact with the meat they cook, rendering them ritually impure. However, vessels that are not thought likely to have come into contact with impurity may be used without washing, such as milk vessels in which they do not put their cooked food, or which they wash before putting milk into them. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, performed ablution using water from a Christian woman’s jar. Thus, something whose impurity is doubtful is not deemed impure on the basis of doubt alone.

They may not be buried in Muslim cemeteries, nor may funeral prayers be offered for those of them who die. Allah, Glorified and Exalted, forbade His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to offer funeral prayers for the hypocrites, such as ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ubayy and others like him. They outwardly observed prayer, zakat, fasting and jihad alongside the Muslims, and did not openly profess any doctrine contrary to Islam, but concealed such beliefs. Allah said:

“Never offer a funeral prayer for any of them who dies, nor stand at his grave. They disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger and died defiantly disobedient.”

What, then, of these people who, in addition to their heresy and hypocrisy, openly display unbelief and impiety?

As for employing such people at the Muslims’ frontier posts, in their fortresses or in their army, this is a major sin. It is like employing wolves to tend sheep, for they are among the most treacherous of people