Likewise, it is permissible to fight “rebels”: those who rise against the ruler or others on the basis of a defensible interpretation, even though they remain upright, we uphold their judicial rulings, and we recognize as valid their collection of jizyah, land tax, and other revenues. There is no disagreement that the Companions retained their upright standing; their defensible interpretation precluded judging them to be flagrantly sinful.

As for fighting them, its purpose is to make them fulfil the obligations they have neglected and desist from the prohibited acts they have committed, even though they act on an interpretation. Likewise, we enforce the prescribed punishment upon someone who drinks a fermented beverage whose permissibility is disputed, even if those who do so are righteous people.

Consider, then, how people are punished in this world for neglecting an obligation or committing an act clearly forbidden in religious or worldly affairs, even though they may be excused for it. This is done to avert the worldly harm caused by their actions. Similarly, the prescribed punishment is enforced upon someone who repents after his case has been brought before the ruler, even if his repentance is entirely sincere. Likewise, an army will march against this House, and while they are on a stretch of open ground, the earth will swallow them up. Among them will be people compelled to accompany them, but they will be resurrected according to their intentions. Likewise, the armies of the disbelievers are fought even though their ranks include people compelled to join them, as at Badr, when al-ʿAbbās and others were among them.

The same applies if the disbelievers use Muslims as shields and their harm cannot be repelled except by fighting them. Thus, punishments prescribed by religious law and those divinely decreed may, in this world, extend to people who do not deserve them in the Hereafter. For such people, they count among the calamities that befall them. As has been said concerning some of them: “The killer is striving in Allah’s cause, and the one killed is a martyr.”

Accordingly, the instruction given by the later adherents of the Sunnah—that an advocate of religious innovation