This is the recompense of those who fight against God and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: They shall be slaughtered, or cruci‌ fied, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off, or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement. (Q. ٥:٣٣)
"Have you not seen that the discretion which God gave to the Imam is only in con‌
nection with disbelief, and not in other things?" At that point I asked the Imam al- adiq
ished from the land" [Q. ٥:٣٣]. The Imam said: "This has to do with pursuit-that is, chasing the enemy until it flees. If they are taken, then they are to be treated in accor‌ dance with the rules enacted for such cases.
"As for the other governing principle, if the war ends and the enemy is weakened, each prisoner taken under those circumstances is under the discretionary control of the Imam: If he so desired, he would treat them with grace and send them away, or if he so decided, he would ask them to ransom themselves, and if he so wished, he might en‌ slave them and they would become his slaves."١٤٤
Al-Pal.lJ:!ak and Ata, among the Sunni scholars, agree with us that killing a pris‌ oner becomes inadmissible after the defeat of the enemy. Al-ijasan stated this ex‌ plicitly, adding that the Imam has the right to either set him free through grace or ransom, or to enslave him. ١٤٥
According to the above, [Q ٤٧:٤] was not abrogated. The most that one can say is that killing is reserved for particular situations, and not killing is for others, regard‌ less of whether the sword verse preceded or succeeded this verse in revelation.
It is strange that Shaykh a!-Tasi attributed to Shiite scholars the fact that they are of the opinion, in this connection, that when the enemy is weakened, the Imam should be given the discretion of either killing the prisoner or applying one of the three alter‌ natives mentioned above. He says:

What is related by our associates is that the captive, if taken before the war and fight‌ ing have ended-that is, while the war is still going on and the fighting is raging‌ then the Imam has the choice of either killing them or alternately cutting off their hands and feet without severing them, and leaving them to bleed to death. He does not have the right to exercise grace or ransom. However, if the captive is taken after the war has come to an end and hostilities have terminated, the Imam has the right either to set him free through grace, or to ransom him for money or in exchange for [a Muslim pris‌ oner], or to enslave him, or to kill him.
Al-Tabarsi, in his commentary on the Quran, follows al-Tasi, ١٤٦ although no tradi‌
tion is reported to support such a view.
In his book al-Mabsilf, al-Tasi again states:

In the case of every captive taken after the war comes to an end, the Imam has the free‌ dom to either set him free through grace, or enslave him, or hold him for ransom. He does not have the right to kill him, as our associates have related. ١٤٧
Indeed, he has claimed a consensus in this regard and has produced traditions to this effect in the section dealing withal-fay, and in the section, in his book al-Khilaf, dealing with the distribution of the spoils of war.
Among [others] who have claimed a consensus in this matter is the scholar al‌
ijilli in his two works, al-Muntaha and al-Tadhkira, and in the section dealing with