"Are you imitating the Persians and the Byzantines? No head is to be carried to me; the letter and the report suffice." Al-Zuhri said: "No head was ever carried to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), but a head was carried to Abu Bakr, and he disapproved of it. The first to whom heads were carried was Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr." It is disliked to throw them [heads] using a mangonel. Ahmad has explicitly stated this. If they do that for a benefit, it is permissible, according to what we have narrated: that when Amr ibn al-Aas besieged Alexandria, a man of the Muslims was captured, and they took his head. His people came to Amr angry, and Amr said to them: "Take a man from them, cut off his head, and throw it to them in the mangonel." They did that, and the people of Alexandria threw the head of the Muslim to his people.

Section: It is permissible to accept the gift of the disbelievers from the people of war, because the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) accepted the gift of the al-Muqawqis, the ruler of Egypt. If that is during the time of an expedition, Abu al-Khattab said: "What the polytheists gift to the commander of the army or to some of his leaders is spoils of war, because he does not do that except for his fear of the Muslims." The apparent implication of this is that what is gifted to individuals of the commoners is theirs. The judge [al-Qadi] said: "It is also spoils of war." If it is in the Abode of War [Dar al-Harb] for the Abode of Islam [Dar al-Islam], it belongs to the one to whom it was gifted, whether he is the Imam or someone else, because the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) accepted the gift, so it was his to the exclusion of others. This is the opinion of al-Shafi'i and Muhammad [ibn al-Hasan]. Abu Hanifa said: "It belongs to the recipient in all cases, because it was specified for him, similar to how it is if he were in the Abode of Islam." This was also narrated as a report from Ahmad. Our position is that he took that while behind the army, which is similar to what he took by force, and because when he gifts it to the Imam or the commander, the apparent fact is that he is maneuvering...