The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) – Volume III — Page 110
Seal of the Prophets - Volume III 110 Muslims. 1 In this manner, the innocent Muslims died tossing and turning in an open field. Among them was a personal servant of the Holy Prophet sa named Yassār, who was appointed to graze the camels of the Holy Prophet sa. 2 When these savages had killed the Muslims in this barbaric manner, they gathered all the camels and took them away. These events were reported to the Holy Prophet sa by a shepherd who happened to escape to safety. The Holy Prophet sa immediately prepared a party of twenty companions and sent them in pursuit. Although these people had already covered some ground, by God’s Grace, the Muslims swiftly pursued them and managed to capture them. The Muslims tied them in ropes and brought them back. Until that time, no injunctions had been revealed to the Holy Prophet sa as to what should be done with an individual who commits such actions. Therefore, as per his old practice that until a new injunction was revealed in Islām, the way of the people of the book was followed 3 according to Mosaic law, 4 the Holy Prophet sa ordered that just as these cruel people had treated the Muslim shepherds, they too should be treated in retribution and in equal retaliation. This would serve as a lesson to others. Thus, almost in the same manner, these people were lowered into the pit of death in an open field outside Madīnah. However, God had decreed a different law for Islām, and so from thereon, even in a state of retribution and equal retaliation, the punishment of mutilation was forbidden. In other words, it was prohibited that the body of a criminal be disfigured in any way, or for body parts to be cut into pieces in a manner of retribution, etc. 5 We need not write extensively on this account, because the cruelty was instigated by the infidels towards the Muslims in this savage and barbaric manner without any just cause, purely out of animosity for Islām. Furthermore, whatever was done to them in punishment, was merely in retribution and equitable retaliation. Moreover, it was done in such a state 1 * Ṣaḥīḥu Muslim, Kitābul-Qasāmati Wal-Muḥāribīna. . . , Bābu Ḥukmil-Muḥāribīna Wal-Murtaddīn, Ḥadīth No. 4360 * Sunanut-Tirmidhī, Kitābuṭ-Ṭahārah, Bābu Mā Jā’a Fī Bauli Mā Yu’kalu Laḥmuhū, Ḥadīth No 73 2 As-Sīratun-Nabawiyyah, By Abū Muḥammad ‘Abdul-Mālik bin Hishām, p. 889, Sariyyatu Kurz-ibni Jābirin Li-Qatlil-Bajāliyyīn-alladhīna Qatalū Yasāran, Dārul-Kutubil-‘Ilmiyyah, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (2001) 3 Ṣaḥīḥul-Bukhārī, Kitābul-Libās, Bābul-Farq, Ḥadīth No. 5917 4 Exodus (21:23-25), Leviticus (24:19-21), Deuteronomy (19:21) 5 * Ṣaḥīḥul-Bukhārī, Kitābul-Maghāzī, Bābu Qiṣṣati ‘Uklin Wa ‘Urainah, Ḥadīth No. 4192 * Aṭ-Ṭabaqātul-Kubrā, By Muḥammad bin Sa‘d, Volume 2, p. 296, Sariyyatu Kurz-ibni Jābirin Al- Fihriyyi Ilā ‘Uraniyyīn, Dāru Iḥyā’it-Turāthil-‘Arabī, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (1996) * The Life of Mahomet, By Sir William Muir, Chapter XVIII (Sixth Year of Hegira), Certaub Robbers Executed Barbarously. . . , p. 364, Published by Smith, Elder & Co. London (1878)