would ever advance upon a fellow Muslim, fighting him in order to seize his family and his wealth.

For that very reason the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said, “Insulting a Muslim is wickedness, and fighting him is disbelief.” A person who fights Muslims has, in effect, no faith at all. When a man is faithless, or his faith is gravely deficient, we are obligated to fight him in self-defence; the Prophet, peace be upon him, commanded, “Fight him,” and he said, “If you kill him, he is in the Fire; and if he kills you, you are a martyr,” because you are fighting to protect your property, your family, and your own life.

To sum up, there are two types of combat. The first is offensive fighting (qitāl al-ṭalab): I go out to fight people in their own lands. This is permissible only under certain conditions.

The jurists, for example, have ruled that if the residents of a town abandon the call to prayer—although it is not one of the pillars of Islam—the ruler must fight them until they give the adhan, for they have neglected one of the public rites of Islam.

Likewise, if they abandon the Eid prayer and say, “We will not perform it, neither at home nor in the open,” we must fight them. Even if some object, “Is the adhan one of the pillars of Islam?” we answer, “No, but it is one of Islam’s visible rites; therefore we will fight you until you call the adhan.” And if two groups of believers were to take up arms against one another—such as two tribes driven by tribal zealotry,