{ Fight those who do not believe in Allah nor in the last day and who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden and who do not profess the religion of truth – from among those to whom the book was given – until they give the jizya from their hands and they are abased } : and they are in the same situation they were when they disbelieved in Muhammad (SAW); they no longer have any true belief in any of the messengers, nor in what they have brought. Indeed they follow after their own opinions, their desires, and what their forefathers did, not because this was Allah’s prescribed law or His religion. If they were Believers with true belief in what was among them, this would have guided them to belief in Muhammad (SAW), since all the prophets gave the good news about him, and ordered that He be followed. When He came, however, and they disbelieved in him, although He was the most honorable of the messengers, He knew that they did not hold fast to the prescribed law of the earlier prophets which was from Allah, but rather to their good fortunes and desires. As such their belief in the rest of the prophets was of no use to them, as they had disbelieved in their lord, the best of them, their completion and the most perfect of them. For this reason He says: { Fight those who do not believe in Allah nor in the last day and who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden and who do not profess the religion of truth – from among those to whom the book was given } . This noble verse came down as the first command to fight the People of the Book after the issues of the Idolaters [Mushrikeen] were settled and people entered into Allah’s religion in droves, and the Arabian peninsula was put in order. Allah and His Messenger ordered the people of the two books – Jews and Christians – to be fought, and this was in the ninth year. For this reason the Messenger of Allah (SAW) prepared himself to fight Rome, and He called the people to this and made it known to them. … His word: { until they give jizya } : that is, if they have not yielded into Islam; { from their hands } : that is, under their compulsion and subjugation; { and they are abased } : that is, humiliated, miserable, and scorned. For this reason it is not permissible to esteem those held under safeguard [dhimma], nor elevate them above the Muslims; rather they are shamed, abased, and wretched, as related in Sahih Muslim from Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (SAW) said: Do not initiate greetings with Jews or Christians, and whenever you meet one of them on a road, force him to its narrowest part. This is why the Leader of the Faithful ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) imposed these well-known conditions on them – to shame them, abase them, and make them miserable.