Section

Some of the conditions stipulated by the masters of futuwwa (chivalry) concern what Allah and His Messenger have commanded, such as speaking truthfully, fulfilling trusts, performing obligatory duties, avoiding forbidden acts, supporting the oppressed, maintaining ties of kinship and keeping covenants. Others concern recommended acts, such as pardoning a wrongdoer, bearing harm patiently, doing good that Allah and His Messenger love, uniting upon the Sunnah, and parting company with one another if the other follows a religious innovation, and similar matters. Every Muslim believes in these, whether or not the masters of futuwwa stipulate them.

Other conditions concern what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, such as pacts of the kind made by the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance: each party befriends the other’s friend in both right and wrong, treats the other’s enemy as his own enemy in both right and wrong, and supports him against anyone who opposes him, whether he or his adversary is in the right. Such conditions make the unlawful lawful and the lawful unlawful. They are conditions that are not in the Book of Allah.

It is reported from the Prophet in the Sunan collections that he said:

“Muslims are bound by their conditions, except a condition that makes the unlawful lawful or the lawful unlawful.”

All conditions agreed upon among tribes, kings, masters, allies and others are subject to this ruling, by the agreement of Muslim scholars. If the stipulated matter is something that Allah and His Messenger have commanded,