In battle the fighters are divided—this contingent on one flank and that on the other, this tribe and that tribe, or this class of people, such as the Emigrants and the Helpers—each detachment bearing its own banner, a flag by which it is recognised.

ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, then asked, “Messenger of Allah, shall I fight them until they are like us?”—that is, “Do I keep fighting until they become Muslims, or what?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Advance calmly until you arrive in their midst,” and he did not tell him, “Fight them until they are like us.” This is because the disbelievers are not fought in order to coerce them into Islam; they are fought so that they submit to the rulings of Islam—either by paying the jizya in humble acknowledgment, or by entering Islam.

The scholars have differed: is this ruling—fighting until the jizya is paid—confined to the People of the Scripture, or is it applicable to all unbelievers? The majority say that it concerns only the People of the Scripture, the Jews and the Christians; they are fought until they pay the jizya or accept Islam, whereas others are fought until they embrace Islam, for nothing else is accepted from them. They quote as evidence the verse: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah or the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and who do not follow the religion of truth, among those who were given the Scripture, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued” (Quran 9:29).

The sounder opinion, however, is that the ruling is general, and its proof is that the Prophet ﷺ accepted the jizya from the Magians