Islam and Slavery — Page 59
59 has been the first to inflict on the Muslims. Hence now. when the conditions have changed and the people hostile. to the Muslims no longer go to the extent of making slaves of Muslim men and women in times of war, but treat them as State prisoners, it would be unlawful for the Muslims to make slaves of the prisoners of war taken from a belligerent army. ” (¹). To sum up, there are two fundamental teachings of. Islam concerning the prisoners of war :-firstly that so far as possible, there should be no haste in taking captives, and prisoners should be taken only as a last resort when a battle has been actually fought; secondly that after the prisoners have been taken, they should be dealt with in one of three ways, according as the circumstances demand. They should either be set at liberty as an act of favour without taking any ransom-and that is the most commendable course or they should be released in return for a reasonable ransom, or, if necessary, the period of their imprisonment may be extended to the end of war. This is the only teaching that has been expressly laid down in Islam with regard to the prisoners of war. Islam, however, gives a general rule to the effect that if political considerations demand the taking of a strong retaliatory measure against the enemy," it should be subject to the condition firstly that no such action should be taken against the enemy as the enemy has not been the first to take against the Muslims, and secondly that the action taken should not be in contravention of any explicit teaching of Islam. It was under this rule that the prisoners (1) Chashma-i-Ma'refat. pp. 244, 245,