Chapter on Whom Among the Unbelievers Are to Be Fought Until They Enter Islam or Pay the Jizya, and the Legal Ruling Concerning Them

All categories of unbelievers are to be fought—the People of the Scripture and others such as the Copts, the Barak, the Abyssinians, the Fazaris, the Saqalibah, the Berbers, the Magians, and every other group of unbelievers, Arab and non-Arab alike—until they accept Islam or hand over the jizya with their own hands while humbled.

Should unbelievers from the western lands be taken captive, they may be enslaved just as non-Arab captives are.

It has been said that the jizya is accepted only from the People of the Scripture and from the Magians; from all other unbelievers nothing is accepted save Islam or death. This was maintained by a number of scholars from Madinah, the Hijaz, and Iraq; Ibn Wahb adopted it, and it is also the view of al-Shafi‘i.

Any unbeliever to whom the summons of Islam has already reached needs no further invitation, whereas one to whom it has not reached is not to be fought until he is first called to Islam. Mālik preferred that the enemy not be fought until they are invited to Islam, whether or not the summons had previously reached them, unless they rush to attack, in which case they are fought at once.

It is impermissible to launch a night raid against those who have not yet received the summons. As for the Byzantines (al-Rum), no objection is raised to attacking them at night, for the summons of Islam has reached them and their territory lies near.

Whoever refuses to enter Islam or to pay the jizya is fought, and adult males are then killed, whether they were combatants or not. Women, children, the elderly, the chronically infirm, and the mentally ill are not killed; they are taken captive instead. If, however, an old man is skilled in counsel, guile, and stratagem and thereby incites hostility against the Muslims, killing him is permissible; otherwise it is not.

Likewise, those who dwell in hermitages and monasteries are not to be killed, and nothing of their property is to be taken except what exceeds their subsistence needs.