Thus, it is clear that the description does [not] apply (1) to those whom he fought *) (2) at Hunayn and others like them, for their fighting strength was of the same kind as that of their Arab counterparts who had previously been fought.

It is therefore clear that the description applies to the Persians and Byzantines, whom Allah commanded to be fought, or else they are to embrace Islam. If they are fought [before that] (3), they must be fought until they pay the jizyah with willing submission, being humbled.

If it is said that this includes fighting the apostates, since they must either be fought or embrace Islam, that would be more plausible than saying that it refers to fighting the people of Mecca and Hunayn. Those people were fought at a time when truces with the disbelievers were permissible, allowing them neither to embrace Islam nor to be fought. In the year of the conquest and Hunayn, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had treaties with many disbelievers that did not require jizyah, and he honoured those treaties. However, when Allah subsequently revealed Surah Barāʾah in the year 9, the year of the expedition to Tabūk, he sent Abū Bakr after Tabūk to lead the pilgrimage and instructed him to proclaim:

“No polytheist shall perform the pilgrimage after this year, and no one shall circumambulate the House naked. Whoever has a treaty with the Messenger of Allah shall have it honoured until its stipulated term. He then sent ʿAlī after him, instructing him to renounce the unrestricted treaties and to grant those who had no treaty a respite of four months.”

The last of these months was Rabīʿ in the year 10.

The sacred months mentioned in His words:

“And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them”—and the rest of the verse (4) [Surah al-Tawbah: 5]—do not refer to the sacred months