“But if they repent” [Surah al-Tawbah: 5] (1). He did not say, “Fight them until they repent.”

And his statement:

“I have been commanded to fight people until they say: ‘There is no god but Allah’” (2)

is true, for anyone who says, “There is no god but Allah,” is not to be fought (3) under any circumstances, whereas anyone who does not say it is fought until he pays jizyah. This view is explicitly stated by Ahmad. The other view, held by al-Shāfi‘ī, was mentioned by al-Khiraqī in his “Abridgment (4),” and a group of Ahmad’s followers agreed with him on it.

Further clarification of this is that the wording of the verse in Surah Barā’ah specifically refers to Christians, yet the Muslims have agreed that its ruling extends to Jews and Magians.

The point is that, in the early days of Islam, the alternatives were not limited to the Muslims fighting them or their embracing Islam, since there was a third option: concluding treaties with them. Once the verse concerning jizyah was revealed, however, either fighting or embracing Islam became inevitable; if they did not embrace Islam, they were to be fought until they paid jizyah. Thus, these people were either engaged in fighting or Muslims. He did not say, “You will fight them, or they will embrace Islam.” Had that been the case, it would have been obligatory to fight them until they embraced Islam,