Does the saying of Allah the Exalted: (or they are expelled from the land) apply to its apparent meaning, or is the intended meaning imprisonment?

Question : If the expulsion is negated, is the Shaykh to be taken at face value, or do we understand that they are to be imprisoned?

Answer : The expulsion is to be taken at its apparent meaning, but if their evil cannot be averted by expelling them—such that if we expel them from this region, they will cause corruption in the region to which we expel them—then imprisonment becomes necessary.