in which one who fought his companions would thereby be fighting Allah and His Messenger. Moreover, even supposing that he were fighting Allah and His Messenger, those who wage war in this sense are highway robbers, and if they are Muslims, they do not thereby become unbelievers.

People have differed concerning the words of Allah Most High:

“The penalty of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive to spread corruption in the land is that they be killed or crucified.”

Surah al-Mā’idah.

Does this refer to unbelievers or to Muslims? Those who say that it refers to Muslims argue that Allah Most High says:

“The penalty of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive to spread corruption in the land is that they be killed or crucified, or that their hands and feet be cut off on opposite sides, or that they be banished from the land.”

Had they been unbelieving apostates, it would not have been permissible to limit their punishment to cutting off their hands or banishing them (1). Rather, they would necessarily have to be killed, for an apostate must be killed.

Likewise, anyone who waged war while acting upon an interpretation reached through independent legal judgment was not thereby an unbeliever. Thus, when Usāma ibn Zayd killed that Muslim while acting upon an interpretation, he did not thereby become an unbeliever. This is so even though deeming it lawful to kill a Muslim whose life is inviolable constitutes unbelief. Similarly, declaring a believer an unbeliever constitutes unbelief, as the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“If a man says to his brother, ‘You unbeliever!’ one of the two has incurred it.” (2)

Nevertheless, if he says this on the basis of an interpretation, he does not become an unbeliever, just as Umar ibn al-Khattāb said to Hātib ibn Abī Balta‘a: