Islam - Its Meaning for Modern Man — Page 323
323 agreed payments toward his ransom. In such cases, the person to whom he has been assigned is admonished to help him as much as possible out of his own resources to enable him to fulfil the terms of the agreement (24:34). In case a dispute arises concerning the amount of installments of the ransom to be paid by the prisoner out of his earnings, the matter is to be settled by the qazi (judge). In fact, the ransoming of captives by the Muslims themselves as a charitable act is highly commended (2:178). As has been seen, there was a continuous state of war between the Meccans and the Muslims, beginning with the Emigration and continuing until the Treaty of Hudaibiyya established a truce. It so happened that after the battle of Uhud there was a severe famine at Mecca. The Prophet, overlooking all the suffering that the Meccans had inflicted upon him and the Muslims in Mecca, and the war that the Meccans had started against the Muslims as soon as they had established themselves in Medina, raised a fund from the Muslims, who themselves suffered from extreme privation, and arranged to send relief to Mecca. Later the chief of a powerful tribe became a Muslim. This tribe controlled the route by which grain and other foodstuffs were transported to Mecca, and the chief threatened to put an end to this traffic. The Meccans appealed to the Prophet at Medina, requesting that the chief be dissuaded from carrying