Zimmies may testify concerning each other--THE testimony of Zimmiees with respect to each other is admissible, notwithstanding they be of different r… - Burhan al-Din al-Murghinani

If the Imam make peace with the aliens in return for property, there is no scruple; because since peace may be lawfully made without any such gratification it is also lawful in return for a gratification. This, however, is only where the Muslims stand in need of the property thus to be acquired; for if they be not in necessity, making peace for property is not lawful, since peace is a desertion of war both in appearance and in effect. It is to be observed that if the Imam receive this property by sending a messenger and making peace without the Muslim troops entering the enemy's territory, the object of disbursement of it is the same as that of jizyah or capitation-tax; that is, it is to be expended upon the warriors and not upon the poor. If, however, the property be taken after the Muslims have invaded the enemy in this case it is as plunder, one-fifth going to the Imam and the remainder to be divided among the troops, as the property has in fact been taken by force in this instance. It is incumbent on the Imam to keep peace with apostates, and not to make war upon them, in order that they may have time to consider their situation, since it is to be hoped that they may again return to the faith. It is, therefore, lawful to delay fighting with them in a hope that they may again embrace Islam; but it is not lawful to take property from them. If, however, the Imam should take property from them, it is not incumbent upon him to return it, as such property is not in protection. If infidels harass the Muslims, and offer them peace in return for property, the Imam must not accede thereto as this would be a degradation of the Muslim honour, and disgrace would be attached to all the parties concerned in it; this, therefore, is not lawful except where destruction is to be apprehended, in which case the purchasing a peace with property is lawful, because it is a duty to repel destruction in every possible mode.

"If a Muslim attack infidels without previously calling them to the faith, he is an offender, because this is forbidden; but yet if he do attack them before thus inviting them and slay them, and take their property, neither fine, expiation, nor atonement are due, because that which protects (namely, Islam) does not exist in them, nor are they under protection by place (namely the Daru ‘l-Islam, or Muslim territory), and the mere prohibition of the act is not sufficient to sanction the exaction either of fine or of atonement for property; in the same manner as the slaying of the women or infant children of infidels is forbidden, but if, notwithstanding, a person were to slay such, he is not liable to a fine. It is laudable to call to the faith a people to whom a call has already come, in order that they may have the more full and ample warning; but yet this is not incumbent, as it appears in the Traditions that the Prophet plundered and despoiled the tribe of al-Mustaliq by surprise, and he also agreed with Asamah to make a predatory attack upon Qubna at an early hour, and to set it on fire, and such attacks are not preceded by a call. (Qubna is a place in Syria: some assert it is the name of a tribe).

If a person becomes a Mussulman, who is indebted for any arrear of capitation-tax, such arrear is remitted: and in the same manner, the arrear of capitation-tax due from Zimmee is remitted upon his dying in a state of infidelity. Shafei holds that the tax is not remitted in either case; because it was due either in return for protection to the person, or in return for permission to reside in the mussulman territory; and the Zimmee or convert has continued under protection, and resided in the Mussulman territory: the return from him, therefore, is not to be remitted in consequence of the supervenient circumstance of death, or convention of the faith; in the same manner, as in case of hire, or of composition for blood;—in other words, if capitation tax be a return for residence, it comes under the construction hire, and is not remitted in consequence of death, or conversion to the faith, in the same manner as if a Zimme were to hire a house and reside therein for the period agreed upon, and then die, or embrace the faith, in which case the rent of the house does not cease; and so likewise with respect to capitation-tax:—or, if capitation-tax be a return for protection to the person, it comes under the construction of a composition for blood, and is not remitted in consequence of death or conversion to the faith, in the same manner as if a Zimme were wilfully to kill a person, and afterwards enter into composition for the murder with the friends of the deceased, for a certain consideration, and them become a Mussulman, or die, in which case the consideration is not remitted from him;—and so likewise capitation-tax, (which is the consideration for protection to his person,) is not remitted. The arguments of our doctors upon this point are threefold.—First, the prophet has declared that "capitation-tax is not incumbent upon Mussulmans:"—Secondly, capitation-tax is a species of punishment, inflicted upon infidels on account of their infidelity, whence it is termed Yizyat, which is derived from Yizya, meaning retribution; now the temporal punishment of infidelity is remitted in consequence of conversion to the faith; and after death it cannot be inflicted, because temporal punishments are instituted solely for the purpose of removing evil, which is removed by either death or Islám:—THIRDLY, capitation-tax is a substitute for aid to the Mussulmans, and as the infidel in question, upon embracing the faith, becomes enabled to aid them in his own person, capitation-tax consequently drops upon his Islám.—With respect to the a to the argument adduced by Shafei, we reply that capitation-tax is neither consideration for protection to person, nor residence, because protection to the person is established in virtue of humanity, and a Zimme resides, in the mussulman territory, within his own dwelling; wherefore the case does not admit that a consideration, for protection to his person, or for residence, should be exacted from him.