The laws of war seek to fulfill four aims...

The laws of war seek to fulfill four aims: • Humanitarian treatment • Protection of non-military zones • Protection of civilians • Keeping the non-belligerent states aloof from the war The study of the group of rules and rights of war from the Paris Declaration dated 16 April 1856 regarding the rules of Marine War to the last rules in this regard, that is the Four Geneva Conventions and the 1977 protocols amended to them and the 1981 United Nations Convention and comparing them to the rules and principles in Islamic rules regarding war and armed strifes well demonstrate that the origins of the rules of war in general and Humanitarian law and the protective rights can be completely found in Islamic teachings.

In addition, the idea that such laws are derived from Islamic rights is not exaggerative. This fact shall be proved when the Islamic sources and the way the jurisprudents of early centuries classified international and non-international wars and their systems and the treatment of Muslim combatants towards the enemy are considered one by one.

Punishment for the violations of soldiers in Islamic law directs our attention to another fact and that is the aforementioned instructions are not merely moral recommendations but laws to be exercised. In addition, the violators are responsible for the punishment thus incurred.

Assuredly, the Muslims have performed such mighty system for instituting the war and peace rules since the seventh century that they have remained within international rights and relations even before the West gained such recognition about one thousand years ago. Imam Muhammad Ibn Hasan Shaybani, the Hanafite jurisprudent, was the pioneer of this body of laws and principles.

He founded this knowledge in the eighth century through his books Al-Sayr al-Saghir (The Small Conduct) and Al-Sayr al-Kabir (The Great Conduct). During the recent years, the Shaybani Society of International Rights was founded in Gottingen as a way of commemorating this great jurisprudent. In addition, the strivers for human rights from various countries joined it.