—and slips in secretly to serve as a spy for the enemy or a saboteur, such a man is to be killed, for he enjoys no pledge of safety. By contrast, if someone enters under a guarantee from the state or under a pledge granted by any Muslim party, and that pledge is later violated, he must not be killed; his life is inviolable and protected. Whoever betrays a person under such protection incurs the curse of Allah, the angels, and all people.

From this we realize the error of what we hear in certain lands—attacks upon those who live securely under a covenant issued by the state. You find them safe by virtue of that covenant, and then someone appears in the name of Islam and treacherously assaults them. No, for Islam knows nothing of treachery. Allah says: “Fulfil the covenant of Allah when you have pledged, and do not break oaths after confirming them” (Qur’an 16:91). He also says: “And do not be like the woman who unravels her yarn after it was firmly spun, making your oaths a means of deception among yourselves, merely because one community is greater in number than another” (Qur’an 16:92).

The covenant is something momentous, and betrayal of it is atrocious—may Allah protect us. Such conduct has nothing to do with Islam. Yet some ignorant people imagine that they can conceal their zeal in actions that do not accord with the Qur’an and the Sunnah; this is a grave mistake. The believer is bound by what the Sacred Law has brought; Islam is not governed by personal whims: “Had the Truth followed their desires, the heavens and the earth and all who dwell in them would surely have been corrupted” (Qur’an 23:71). The proper paths are known, clearly explained, and Allah knows best.