It is the Sunnah of the Almighty to make Itmam Al-Hujjah to people through His messengers. Once this is done those who out of arrogance (i.e. while deep down being convinced) reject the message of the messenger are kuffar and will be punished. In the case of those rejecters who are not among the People of Book the punishment is death. Where the messenger enjoys the support of a reasonable number of followers this divine punishment may be carried out with God’s directive through the Jihad that the messenger and his companions initiate with the kuffar. It is important to know that in this case the messenger and his followers are merely means of God’s punishment for the rejecters. In other words their Jihad with kuffar in this case is not to preach Islam to them and to invite them to Islam, but is in fact the punishment for not accepting Islam out of arrogance. Having said that, this punishment will itself become a preaching tool and an evidence for those who witness it or become aware of it as it is a miniature illustration of the day of judgement for them. (In the case of People of Book the punishment was to become surrender and subjugated to the Islamic state).

Obviously none of the above applies at our time since without divine directive we do not know who is rejecting Islam only out of arrogance and also we do not have God’s directive to punish those for whom Itmam Al-Hujjah has been made.

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