When a person is given option in Quran between two or more choices, then [case 1] if the choices are exclusively related to him/her then he/she has the luxury to choose based on personal desire. [case 2] If, however, the choices are affecting others, then, one has to choose what is better for the others.

 Example 1 [case 1] :

And do not shave your heads until the sacrificial animal has reached its place of slaughter. And whoever among you is ill or has an ailment of the head a ransom of fasting or charity or sacrifice. [al-Baqarah 2: 196]

Example 2 [case 1]:

 But He impose blame upon you for [breaking] what you intended of oaths. So its expiation is the feeding of ten needy people from the average of that which you feed your [own] families or clothing them or the freeing of a slave. [Al-Maedah 5: 89]

Example 3 [case 1]:

O you who have believed, do not kill game while you are in the state of ihram. And whoever of you kills it intentionally – the penalty is an equivalent from sacrificial animals to what he killed, as judged by two just men among you as an offering [to Allah] delivered to the Ka’bah, or an expiation: the feeding of needy people or the equivalent of that in fasting, that he may taste the consequence of his matter. [al-Maedah 5:95]

In the above examples, the person can choose between the options according to his own desire and convenience.

Example 1 [case 2]

So when you meet those who disbelieve [in battle], strike [their] necks until, when you have inflicted slaughter upon them, then secure their bonds, and either [confer] favor (by releasing them without ransom) afterwards or ransom [them] until the war lays down its burden [i.e., the war is over]. [Muhammad 46:4]

In this case the Muslim leader will make choice not only based on own desire, but based on what is better for Muslims, either by killing the Kaffirs or taking ransom or enslaving them or releasing them without any ransom, whichever is better for the honor of Muslims.

Example 2 [case 2]

Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. [ al-Maedah 5: 33]

So the leader will choose whatever is best reduce the crime in the society, and not only based on personal desire as is the case in case 1 above.

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