Even though outnumbered and ill-equipped...

Even though outnumbered and ill-equipped, the Muslims defeated the Meccans and took seventy prisoners of war. The norm among all societies at that time was to either kill the POWs or make them slaves. But instructed the Muslims to treat the POWs humanely; they were brought back safely to Medina and given decent lodging in the houses of the people who had taken them prisoners. The Qur’ãn decreed that the POWs must not be ill-treated in any way.

According to a Western biographer of , Sir William Muir, “In pursuance of Mahomet’s commands, the citizens of Medina…received the prisoners and treated them with much consideration. ‘Blessings be on the men of Medina’, said one of the prisoners in later days, ‘they made us ride, while they themselves walked, they gave us wheaten bread to eat when there was little of it; contenting themselves with dates.” The way the Prophet dealt with the prisoners was very revolutionary.

The poor prisoners were released free; those who came from affluent families of Mecca were returned for a specified ransom. (See the Qur’ãn: Surah Muhummad, 47:4) But the most interesting case was of those prisoners who were literate – the made a deal with them that they could go free if they could teach ten Muslim children how to read and write. Even the rules of engagement during war are also important.

Whenever Muslims embarked on the minor jihãd, a defensive jihãd, the (peace be upon him) had standard instructions regarding non-combatants and also the environment: • “Do not violate the treaties.” • “Do not kill an old person or a child or a woman.” • “Do not cut down a tree.” • “Neither burn down the palm-trees nor drown them with water.” • “Do not cut down a tree bearing fruits.” • “Do not drown the plantations.” • “Do not poison the water of the infidels.”[^2] All this was done fourteen hundred years ago; long, long before the Geneva Convention came about.

In background of the secret prisons run by the CIA, ‘the manual of torture’ written by the US army to interrogate the prisoners, and the disclosure of torture in Abu Ghuraib prison, I can proudly say that the example and teachings of about Prisoners of War (POWs) are “definitively good and humane” even according to the standards of the 21st century. [^1]: Roderic H. Davison, Reform in the Ottoman Empire 1856-1876 (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1963) p. 116.

[^2]: Al-Hurr al-‘Amili, Wasã’ilu ’sh-Shī‘ah, vol. 11, p. 43-45. The also specified the rights of animals.