When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly. Then grant them their freedom or take a ransom from them, until War shall lay down her burdens. Thus shall you do. Had God willed, He could Himself have punished them; but He has ordained it thus that He may test you, the one by the other. As for those who are slain in the cause of God, He will not allow their works to perish.