Islam and Slavery — Page 57
57. Moreover, Islam laid it down as a condition that all the war prisoners must necessarily be set at liberty as soon as the war was over. . . Another reason why the prisoners of war were placea in the custody of individuals was that in those days there were no State prisons, and the prisoners were necessarily distributed among, and placed in the charge of, the individual members of the victorious nation. This practice naturally remained in vogue among the Muslims as well. . From the above it is clear that in reality this practice was not slavery but merely arrangement for the protection and maintenance of the prisoners of war-a system which was gradually changed, and was finally replaced by that of State prisons. . It must also be remembered that so far as Islamic government was concerned, this system by no means caused any unavoidable hardship on the prisoners. On the contrary it was in many ways even more convenient and comfortable than the system of the present-day State prisons. For, thanks to the emphatic injunctions of the Holy Prophet (may peace and blessings of God be upon him) and the watchful supervision of the Muslim State, the prisoners of war lived, not as servants or labourers, but as members of the families to which they were attached and were practically treated like guests. For instance, it is on record that the prisoners taken at Badr, who were amongst the worst enemies of Islam, were treated with such kindness that they were forced to pay the Muslims warm tributes of praise, and some of them were so deeply touched by the