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War Ethics in Islam( Part One)
The Rights of the Non-Combatants: Islam has first drawn a clear line of distinction between the combatants and the non-combatants of the enemy country. As far as the non-combatant population is concerned such as women, children, the old and the infirm, etc., the instructions of the Prophet are as follows:
During a war, the Prophet saw the corpse of a woman lying on the ground and observed: "She was not fighting. How then she came to be killed?" From this statement of the Prophet the exegetists and jurists have drawn the principle that those who are non-combatants should not be killed during or after the war. The Rights of the Combatants: Now let us see what rights Islam has conferred on the combatants. In the hadith there is a saying of the Prophet that: "Punishment by fire does not behove anyone except the Master of the Fire" (Abu Dawud). The injunction deduced from this saying is that the adversary should not be burnt alive. Protection of the Wounded "Do not attack a wounded person"-thus said the Prophet. This means that the wounded soldiers who are not fit to fight, nor actually
The Prisoner of War Should not be Slain "No prisoner should be put to the sword"-a very clear and unequivocal instruction given by the Prophet. No one Should be Tied to be Killed "The Prophet has prohibited the killing of anyone who is tied or is in captivity.“ No Looting and Destruction in the Enemy's Country Muslims have also been instructed by the Prophet that if they should enter the enemy's territory, they should not indulge in pillage or plunder nor destroy the residential areas, nor touch the property of anyone except those who are fighting with them. It has been narrated in the hadith:
Abu Bakr al-Siddiq used to instruct the soldiers while sending them to war,
The booty of war which is acquired from the battleground is altogether different from this. It consists of the wealth, provisions and equipment captured only from the camps and military headquarters of the combatant armies.
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