The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) - Volume II — Page 225
V - Conduct of the Holy Prophet sa with Slaves and His Teachings on the Issue of Slavery 225 reasonable ransom; or if it is necessary, to lengthen their period of captivity until the end of war. There is no explicit teaching found in the Islāmic Sharī‘at relevant to prisoners of war, in addition to what has already been mentioned. Albeit, as a general rule of thumb, Islām teaches that if it is necessary to undertake strong counter-measures with regards to the disbelievers under political objectives, they may be employed under the condition that firstly, no stern action must be undertaken where the disbelievers have not first taken the lead themselves; and secondly, no such measures must be undertaken as contradict any other stipulated teaching. The distribution of disbelieving prisoners among Muslim individuals was in accordance to this very general rule. However, in this day and age, since the disbelievers do not use Muslim prisoners as slaves and keep them as state prisoners, by the same token, it is impermissible for Muslims to distribute disbelieving prisoners amongst Muslim individuals and practice a form of enslavement. Is it Permissible for Prisoners to be executed? The question as to whether it is permissible to kill prisoners or not has been briefly answered above; Islām does not permit this. However, since various Muslim scholars have disagreed upon this issue and Christian historians have also made it a target of objection, it is necessary to write about this in some detail. Hence, first and foremost it should be known that from the verse of Sūrah Muḥammad sa , which has been quoted above, it becomes very clearly evident that it is unlawful to kill prisoners of war. After a Qur’ānic verdict, no individual possesses the right to propose another method. However, for the additional satisfaction of readers, we wish to mention that the translation we have rendered of this Qur’ānic verse is not an invention of the current time. Rather, the Companions interpreted it in the same manner and their actions were according to this. As such, there is a narration in the Aḥādīth as follows: َ عَن ِ الْحَسَن ِ اَن َّ الْحَجَّاج َ اُتِی َ بِاَسِیْر ٍ فَقَال َ لِعَبْد ِ اللّٰه ِ بْن ِ عُمَر َ قُم ْ فَاقْتُلْه ُ فَقَال َ ابْن ُ عُمَر مَا بِھٰذَا اُمِرْنَا یَقُوْل ُ اللّٰه ُ تَبَارَک َ وتَعَالی ٰ حَتّٰی اِذَا اَثْخَنْتُمُوْھُم ْ فَشُدُّوا الْوَثَاق َ فَاِمَّا مَنًّا ً بَعْد ُ وَاِمَّا فِدَاء