Understanding Islam — Page 95
93 what are these people gathered around?” The man then came (after checking) and said, “They are gathered around a woman who has been killed”. He said, “This is not one with whom fighting should have taken place”. Kh ā lid ibn al-Wal ī d ra was in charge of the group. The Prophet sa sent a man (to him) with the instruction, “Tell Kh ā lid not to kill a woman or a hired servant”. 3 This tells us about the stringent rules of engagement in Islam. A Muslim soldier was not even allowed to kill a woman or a hired servant; in other words, according to Islam, there must be no killing of non- combatants. The essence of the teaching in relation to fighting is: One is only allowed to fight in self- defence, and only fight those who are participating in the battle. We now move to the event which Dr. Qureshi has attempted to criticize. First of all, seeing a specific event in isolation without any consideration of context is itself wrong and unjustified especially when determining the aggressiveness of one party or the other. Critics try to portray the early Muslims as aggressive by focusing on specific events like the Nakhla expedition when in reality the Muslims of