And fighting during “civil strife” falls into this category. Al-Zuhrī said:

“Civil strife broke out while the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, were still numerous. They agreed unanimously that any blood shed, property taken, or sexual inviolability violated on the basis of an interpretation of the Quran entailed no liability.”

The same applies to “fighting rebels acting on an interpretation,” whom Allah has commanded to be fought. If those upholding justice fight them, and the rebels take lives or destroy property belonging to those upholding justice, no compensation is due according to the great majority of scholars, including Abū Hanīfah, Mālik, and al-Shāfiʿī in one of his two opinions. This is also the apparent position of Ahmad’s school.

The same applies to “apostates” who acquire armed strength, kill Muslims, shed their blood, and take their property. During the wars against the apostates, the Companions agreed that, after embracing Islam, they were not liable for the lives and property they had destroyed. They had acted on an interpretation, even though their interpretation was false. Likewise, the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, transmitted from him through numerous independent chains, established that when disbelievers killed Muslims and destroyed their property, then embraced Islam, they were not liable for the lives and property they had taken. Those whose lives and property were taken had been striving in Allah’s cause: Allah had purchased their lives and property from them in exchange for Paradise. Compensation for what was taken from them therefore rests with Allah, not with those wrongdoers whom the believers fought.

If this applies to bloodshed and property, it applies all the more to violations of honour. Thus, whoever strives in Allah’s cause with his tongue—by enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, explaining the religion, conveying the commands, prohibitions, and good teachings contained in the Book and the Sunnah, exposing statements contrary to them, and refuting those who oppose the Book and the Sunnah—or through physical action, such as fighting disbelievers, then if