The world did not know a president or conqueror more merciful than Prophet Muhammad – peace be upon him – in dealing with his enemies and captives. This big headline may look too exaggerated, but mentioning some evidences and examples will sure prove the truth. In this part, we will deal with the manners of the Prophet – peace be upon him – before, during and after fighting in order to extract the best moral lessons, the hu-man principles and the cultural values.
First: his Manners Before Fighting
The Prophet – peace be upon him – was not hostile or aggressive in deal-ing with his opponents. He was distinguishing between the covenanters, the warriors and non-Muslims under the ruling of Islam. He did not violate the treaties or act treacherously toward his enemies; contrary, he was dealing with each of them according to the peace & war relations. Ibn Al-Qayyem has summarized the fighting manners of the Prophet – peace be upon him – in his book «Zad Al-Ma›ad» by saying: (After Allah The Almighty has ordered Muslims to fight the disbelievers, the Prophet has classified the disbelievers into three categories; covenanters, warmon-gers and Non-Muslims under the Islamic Rule. He instructed to honor the treaties which were entered with the covenanters as long as they are hon-oring their promises but if he fears that they will violate the treaties, he will terminate the treaties and will not fight them except after notifying them duly about the termination of the treaty. Allah the Almighty has ordered the Prophet – peace be upon him – to fight any party who violates the trea-ties and promises. After the revelation of the verses of «Bara›a» which demonstrated the methods of dealing with such categories, the Prophet – peace be upon him – was ordered to fight the enemies from the Jews & Christians until they pay tributes or embrace Islam and was ordered also to fight the disbelievers; therefore, the Prophet – peace be upon him –has fought the disbelievers by sword and fought the hypocrite by proof and evidence.
These are the rules which were organizing his relations with his opponents; the peace loving or warmongers. Peace was exchanged under cer-tain conditions and war was preceded with objective premises aiming at attaining peace such as the propagation for embracing Islam by own will or paying the tribute to the Islamic State; otherwise, if they insisted on war, continued their stubbornness and fought the Islamic propagation they will find what they want.
Second: his Manners during the Fight
Although fighting is a process wherein the people are killed or injured, the Prophet – peace be upon him – has legislated to his people supreme morals and principles governing the manners of the Muslim fighter and impos-ing severe punishments on the violators in the current life and the here-after. Accordingly, the holy fighting should not be used except under the permissible means and the fair methods. Safwan Bin Assal – May Allah be pleased with him – said: (The Prophet – peace be upon him has sent me with a brigade and said: Start Fight in the name of Allah The Almighty and don’t exceed the proper bounds and don›t be treacherous…)) ?
Yahia Bin Saeed said: Abu Bakr – May Allah be pleased with him – has sent the armies to Al-Sham and told Yazid Bin Abi Sufian the following: (I have ten commandments to you: Don’t destroy inhabited places, don’t kill sheep or camels except for eating, don’t sink palms or burn it, don’t exaggerate, don’t be coward, don’t kill children, women, or old people, don,t cut fruitful trees) .
In another narration he said: (You will pass by people who dedicated their time for hermitages, don’t bother them). These texts and the other Islamic military rules established by the Prophet comprised the moral principles of war, such as:
1- Dedication and neutrality concerning the actual objectives of the war and leave any thing related to the hatred, treachery, revenge or retaliation.
2- Keep the environment and avoid spoiling the land such as burning trees and killing the animals except when necessary.
3- Not confronting the non-warriors such as the women, children and the old people.
4- Religious forgiveness, respecting the sacred places of the others, not killing the priests or ministers unless they fight Muslims or support fighting the Muslims and avoid their churches and worship places.
Those who accuse the Prophet – peace be upon him – and his followers of being bloodthirsty or barbaric are ignorant about these manners and morals and do not care about it in their wars (There are several laws which tell people the most faithful, dutiful and kind teachings & instructions but
when the matter came to the actual manners they forget such teachings & instructions and turn into the hatred, severity and mocking the rights of people, blood shedding and making the wars. One of the best examples on this fact is the clear-cut contradiction between the French Wealth Prin-ciples and the actions of the French people in the countries which are un-der their control such as the Arabic North African Countries which suffered and still suffering from all kinds of injustice, persecution and humiliation. The same is also applicable on the large countries which declared the legislation of human rights while they were the first who ignored human rights and breached the dignity and liberty of the people on their land and wealth)
Not only this, the large countries have ignited wars and committed geno-cides against their opponents under the pretext of fighting terrorism, lib-erating people, achieve democracy and the other alleged principles while they do not have mercy on the children, old people or woman. Just see the prisons of Gwantanamo or Abu Ghraib and the other horrible examples of their manners and morals.
Ref : www.Rasoulallah.net
