Islam also prohibits harming women, children and maimed and injured men.

Islam also prohibits harming women, children and maimed and injured men. Therefore, in the Battle of Hunayn, when Khalid ibn al-Walid killed a woman, the Prophet (a.s) expressed his disapproval of the act and ordered him not to commit any such act in the future. Once talking to the troops, the Prophet (a.s) said that they must take care to see that the women and children of the infidels were not harmed during the war.

Someone said that they were the children of the polytheists and they deserve to be killed. The Prophet (a.s) said,” Are not many of you good persons not the offspring of the infidels?” Islam never permits causing obstruction to the flow of essentials like food and water even for the troops of the enemy. It also bans destruction of enemy property like gardens, farms and buildings. Similarly, it abhors sadistic severing of the body parts of the fallen enemies.

This was one of the heinous practices of the Days of Ignorance in Arabia. Islam abolished this nefarious practice! Islam also laid down norms for the treatment of the prisoners of war. It also established norms for collecting reparations (fidyah) and releasing them honorably. If circumstances required keeping them under detention, norms were there for their proper treatment during the incarceration. Even if they were to be kept as slaves, the treatment had to be very humane.

It cannot be denied that after the Prophet of Islam (a.s), Muslims had waged some wars of aggression and expansion when the norms of jihad were overlooked. While one group championed the acts of terror and suppression as their right, they thought that victory, wealth and pelf acquired through such wars was Rightful! But Islam neither approves of such wars nor is it responsible for such atrocious acts!

Islam has declared in clear terms: “There is no aggression in the Faith!” All the Verses that have been revealed in the Holy Qur’an concerning jihad are about the circumstances when the enemy forcefully tries to suppress and crush the Muslims. Islam neither permits aggressive warlike initiatives nor does it allow forcing its thoughts on others cruelly.

The responsibility of the wars is always on the kings and emperors who, for self-aggrandizement and craving for wealth, plundered innocent peoples and caused untold hardship to huge human populations. These acts gave an opportunity to some people to blame Islam that it was spread with the strength of the sword!