remove the punishment incurred for violating Allah’s right. Rather, it perfects, for the one who enjoins right and forbids wrong, the patience and forgiveness Allah has prescribed for someone in his position, bringing him within the scope of His words, Most High:

“If you remain patient and mindful of Allah, that is indeed a matter requiring firm resolve.”

And His words:

“So pardon and overlook until Allah brings His command.”

There is, however, a subtle distinction here. Patience is commanded unconditionally, and its obligation is therefore not abrogated. Pardoning and overlooking, by contrast, were prescribed until a specified point: until Allah brought His command. When He brought His command by granting the Messenger power and victory, the Messenger became able to wage jihad against those people, compel them to do what is right, and prevent them from doing wrong. It then became obligatory for him to take physical action in these matters where he had previously been unable to do so. He remained commanded to exercise patience in this, just as he had been commanded to exercise patience before.

The purpose of jihad is that Allah’s word should be supreme and that religion should be wholly for Allah. Its purpose is to establish Allah’s religion, not to satisfy an individual’s personal claims. Thus, the reward for whatever harm a fighter suffers in his person or property rests with Allah, for Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their wealth in exchange for Paradise. This is so much the case that, when disbelievers embrace Islam or enter into a treaty, they are not held liable for the Muslim lives they have taken or the property they have destroyed.

Indeed, even if they embrace Islam while still holding property they have seized from Muslims as spoils, it belongs to them according to the majority of scholars, including Mālik, Abū Hanīfah, and Ahmad. Such was the established practice of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and of his rightly guided caliphs.