A brief overview of the views of orthodox Sunni Islam on various topics on jihad
Recommend reading: Defending The Transgressed By Censuring the Reckless Against the Killing of Civilians - a fatwā by Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti
Destroying Trees, Crops and Cattle
Ibn Abī Shayba quotes a narration from the exegete Mujahid b. Jabr (d. 722), who said:
Yahya b. Sa'id reported that when Abū Bakr - may Allāh be pleased with him - was seeing off the Muslim forces to Syria, he came to Yazid b. Abi Sufyan and told him to 'observe ten things' in regards to war, which included:
Killing Traders and Farmers
Ibn Abī Shayba and al-Bayhaqī narrated on the authority of the companion Jabir b. Abdullah, who said:
Ibn Abī Shayba quotes a narration from the exegete Mujahid b. Jabr (d. 722), who said:
Food and date-palm trees should not be burned, houses should not be demolished and fruit-bearing trees should not be cut. [1]
Yahya b. Sa'id reported that when Abū Bakr - may Allāh be pleased with him - was seeing off the Muslim forces to Syria, he came to Yazid b. Abi Sufyan and told him to 'observe ten things' in regards to war, which included:
[...] Do not cut down fruit-bearing trees or demolish buildings. Do not slaughter a sheep or camel except for food. Do not drown or burn date-palm trees. [2]
Killing Traders and Farmers
Ibn Abī Shayba and al-Bayhaqī narrated on the authority of the companion Jabir b. Abdullah, who said:
They [the Muslim soldiers] did not kill the merchants amongst the mushrikeen [polytheists]. [3]
al-Bayhaqī also narrated on the authority of Zayd ibn Wahb that Umar - may Allāh be pleased with him - sent him a letter in which he said:
Fear Allāh regarding farmers and do not kill them. [4]
As for the scholars, the early jurist al-Awza’ī (d. 774) said:
Farmers are not to be killed [during war] if it is known they are not from the combatants. [5]
The Hanbalite jurist Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdīsī (d. 1223) similarly wrote:
As for the farmer who is a non-combatant, he should not be killed, because it was narrated from Umar b. al-Khattab that he said: "Fear Allāh regarding the farmers who do not wage war against you." [6]
He also wrote:
We adhere to the saying of Umar. The companions of the Messenger of Allāh did not kill farmers when they liberated the lands because they do not fight. In this, they resemble old men and priests. [7]
Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350) said:
Indeed, when the companions of the Prophet conquered the various lands, they did not kill them [farmers and merchants] because [they] did not fight [against them], and so in that they resembled the elderly and religious leaders. [8]
Killing Monks and Other Religious Leaders
The Prophet agreed with the people of Najran that its people, and its monks in particular, were to be protected in terms of blood and wealth. Imām Abū Ubayd, al-Qāsim b. al-Sallām, Ibn Sa'd, al-Balādhūrī and others have cited a hadith wherein the Prophet dictated:
Indeed, Najran and her allies are under the protection of Allāh and the guarantee of the Messenger of Allāh. They are to be protected in their wealth, lives, lands and religion. This includes their priests, monks [...] No monk, priests or attendant among them should lose that which is in his possession, be it plentiful or scarce, and no fear or danger will threaten them. [9]
The protection of monks and priests is not specific to 7th century Najran; but rather it is a general principle during jihād. Imām Aḥmad quoted the companion Ibn Abbas (d. 687) - may Allāh be pleased with him - who reported that the Prophet issued the following orders to his armies:
Break no promise, steal not from the spoils of war, and do not mutilate bodies or slay children or monks. [10]
When Abū Bakr - may Allāh be pleased with him - sent the Muslim forces to Syria, he said:
[...] Do not demolish a church. [...] Soon you shall come upon people who have secluded themselves in monasteries, leave them to engage in that for whose sake they have secluded themselves. [11]
Husām al-Din al-Hindī mentioned an additional wording to this report in his Kanz al-Ummāl:
And [do] not [kill] a sick person or monk. [12]
Thābit ibn al-Hajjāj al-Kilābī reported that Abū Bakr said while delivering this address,
Beware! No [non-combatant] priest tending to his monastery should be killed. [13]
Killing Women, Hired Workers and Children
Women and Hired Workers
Rabāḥ b. Rabīḥ reported:
We were with the Messenger of Allāh in one of the battle expeditions, when he saw some people gathered around something. He sent a man out, saying, "Go and see what they are gathering around." The man returned and informed him, saying, "They are gathering around a slain woman." The Prophet said, "She was not amongst those who fight!". At the head of the group was Khālid b. al-Walīd, so the Prophet sent a man to go and inform Khālid: "Neither an idolatrous woman nor a hired servant should be killed." [in an another version: Do not kill children or hired workers.] [14]
Imām al-Nawawī (d. 1277) declared scholarly consensus on this matter (ijmā') due to the above hadith:
Scholars concur upon acting by this hadith and forbid the killing of women and children, provided that they do not engage in combat. But if they do, the overwhelming majority of scholars [jamahir al-‘ulema] hold that they may be fought. [15]
There are some nuances to opinion: Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 778), for example, maintained that it is permissible albeit undesirable to to target children who fight. [16]. Some of the Mālikī jurists, such as Ibn Saḥnūn (d. 870), maintain that if a woman stands guard over an enemy army or stronghold, or warns the enemy, she still cannot be targeted. [17]
Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328) also used this hadith in refutation of Imām al-Shāfiʿī (d. 820)'s opinion that unbelief per se is a justification for war. Rather, Ibn Taymiyyah says, fighting is only in response to belligerence. He wrote:
Some jurists are of the opinion that all of them may be killed on the mere ground that they are unbelievers, but they make an exception for women and children since they constitute property for Muslims. However, the first opinion [that those not involved in fighting can not be killed] is the correct one because we may only fight those who fight us when we want to make Allāh’s religion victorious. [18]
The Prophet also mentioned "Do not kill...hired workers ['usafā]." In a war context, 'usafā refers to anyone who works for, or is paid by the enemy to perform sevices on the battlefield (e.g. logistical support), as al-Shawkānī (d. 1839) suggests:
[...] to mind the belongings and the animals, but do not engage in fighting. [19]Furthermore, Dr. Muhammad Khayr Haykal suggests that because the Prophet prohibited targeting even these enemy hirelings on the battlefield, then a fortiori targeting any non-combatant is prohinited. [20]
Children
Several more evidences can be adduced for the impermissibility of killing children, including the following:
Yazid ibn Hurmaz reported:
Najda wrote a letter to Ibn Abbas asking him about killing children. He wrote back saying, “You wrote to me and asked me about killing children. The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ did not kill them and you should not kill them, unless you know about them what the companion of Moses [i.e. al-Khiḍr] knew about the boy (and you will never know as this is part of the ghayb - unseen). [see Qurʾān 18:80]" [21]
Another narration is the following:
Aswad ibn Sari’ reported:
I came with the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ, and I participated in the battle with him. I engaged in the skirmish that day until some people killed children. News of this reached the Prophet and he said, “What is wrong with these people who have transgressed the limits of killing and have even killed children?” A man said, “O Messenger of Allāh, they are only the children of idolaters.” The Prophet said, “The best of you are the children of idolaters.” Then the Prophet said, “No doubt, do not kill children! Do not kill children! Every soul is born upon its natural instinct [fitrah] until he expresses it with his tongue, then his father makes him into a Jew or a Christian.” [22]
The eminent Ḥanafī jurist, Imām al-Sarakhsī (d. 1096), wrote based on these evidences:
The Prophet ﷺ said: "Do not kill children [walīd]." In the [Arabic] language, the walīd means one who is born [mawlūd]; and every human being [ādamī] is born; however, customarily this word is only used for young children. Therefore, in it is proof that it is impermissible to kill the young children amongst them [non-Muslims], as long as they are not fighting. [23]
As for the classification of a child, the jurists agree that that it is anyone who has not reached puberty or under the age of fifteen years [24]. This concurs with the age limit set for the protection of children in the Geneva Conventions [25].
Elderly
Anas ibn Mālik - may Allāh be pleased with him - narrated:
The Prophet ﷺ said: "Do not kill any feeble old man, or any infant or young child or woman." [26]
al-Ḍaḥḥāk - may Allāh be pleased with him - narrated:
The Prophet ﷺ used to forbid the killing of women and feeble old men. [27]
Rashīd ibn Sa'd said:
The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ forbade the killing of women, children and the infirm. [28]
Jubayr ibn Nufayl said:
A man passed by Thawbān, may Allāh be pleased with him, so he [Thawbān] asked him, "Where do you intend to go?" The man said, "I want to wage battle in the path of Allāh." Thawbān then said to him, "If war booty comes your way, do not steal from it, and do not kill an old man or young boy." The man said, "From whom did you hear this?" Thawbān replied, "From the Messenger of Allāh. " [29]
It is clear from these evidences that targeting the elderly is strictly prohibited, and most jurists concur. The main exception that jurists stated, however, is if an elderly man supports the enemy in planning war operations. Imām al-Nawawī and al-Shirāzī (d. 1083) argued that planning a war is a more important contribution to winning it than the fighting itself, thus killing such a person is permissible [30]. The evidence for this is the killing of Durayd ibn al-Summah, who was brought to the battlefield to plan operations of the Battle of Ḥunayn, even though he was over one hundred years of age. Because the Prophet remained silent on this incident, jurists concluded it is permissible to target the elderly in these cases. However, al-Shawkānī rejected this deduction and maintained that no Islamic sources prove the permissibility of targeting the elderly, even in this case. [31]
References
[1] Narrated by Ibn Abī Shayba in al-Musannaf, 6:483 §33122.
[1] Narrated by Ibn Abī Shayba in al-Musannaf, 6:483 §33122.
[2] Narrated by:
- Imām Mālik in al-Muwatta, in Kitāb al-Jihad [The Book of Jihad] under the chapter "The Unlawfulness of Killing Women and Children During Military Expeditions", 2:447
§965 - Abd al-Razzaq in his al-Musannaf, 6:483 §33121
- al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan al-Kubrā, 9:89-90 §§17927, 17929
- al-Marwazi in Musnad Abi Bakr, pp. 69-72 §21
[4] al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan al-Kubrā, 9:91 §17938.
[5] Ahkam Ahl al-Dhimmah, 1:165.
[6] Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdīsī, al-Mughnī, 9:251.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ahkam Ahl al-Dhimmah, 1:165.
[9] Cited by:
- Abū Yūsuf in al-Kharāj, 78.
- Abū Ubayd al-Qāsim b. Sallām in Kitāb al-amwāl, pp. 244-245 §503
- Ibn Sa'd in his al-Ṭabaqat al-kubrā, 1:288, 358
- al-Balādhūrī in Futuḥ al-buld
- Ibn Zanjawayh in Kitāb al-amwal in pp. 449-450 §732
[11] Narrated by:
- Imām Mālik in al-Muwatta, 2:448 §966.
- Abd al-Razzaq in his al-Musannaf, 5:199 §9375.
- al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan al-Kubra, 9:90 §§17929.
[13] Narrated by Ibn Abī Shayba in al-Musannaf, 6:483 §33127 and al-Hindī in Kanz al-Ummāl, 4:472.
[14] Narrated by:
[16] Imām al-Tabarī, Kitāb al-Jihād wa Kitāb al-Jizyah wa Ahkām al-Muhāribīn min Kitāb Ikhtilāf al-Fuqahā’ ed. Joseph Schacht (Leiden: Brill, 1933), p. 9.
[17] Ahmad al-Dardīr, Al-Sharh al-Kabīr , ed. Muḥammad ‛Allīsh (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, n.d.), [2/176].
[18] Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Siyāsah al-Shar’īyah [1/165].
[19] al-Shawkānī, al-Sayl al-Jarrār [4/532].
[21] Narrated in Imām Aḥmad's Musnad, §3254 and by Muslim in his Sahih, 3:1444 §1812.
[20] Dr. Muḥammad Khayr Haykal, al-Jihād wa al-Qitāl fī al-Siyyāsah al-Shar‛iyyah, 2nd ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Bayāriq, 1996/1417), [2/1246]
[22] Narrated in Imām Aḥmad's Musnad, §15162.
[23] al-Sarakhsī, al-Mabsūṭ, 10:5-6.
[24] Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdīsī, al-Mughnī, 3:277.
[25] Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977, Article 77.
[26] Narrated by Abū Dawūd in his Sunan, Kitāb al-Jihād, 3:37 §2614.
[27] Narrated by Ibn Abī Shayba in al-Musannaf, 6:484 §33133.
[28] Ibid, §33135.
[29] Narrated by Ibn Asākir in Tarīkh Dimashq al-Kabīr, 27:404.
[30] al-Shirāzī, al-Muhadhdhab [3/277] and Imām al-Nawawī, al-Majmū', [21/55]
[31] al-Shawkānī, al-Sayl al-Jarrār [4/533].
[14] Narrated by:
- Abū Dawūd in his Sunan, Kitāb al-Jihād, 3:53 §2669
- Ibn Mājah in his Sunan, Kitāb al-Jihād, 2:948 §2842
- Imām Aḥmad in al-Musnad, 3:488 §16035
- al-Nasā'i in al-Sunan al-Kubrā, 5:186-187 §8625
[16] Imām al-Tabarī, Kitāb al-Jihād wa Kitāb al-Jizyah wa Ahkām al-Muhāribīn min Kitāb Ikhtilāf al-Fuqahā’ ed. Joseph Schacht (Leiden: Brill, 1933), p. 9.
[17] Ahmad al-Dardīr, Al-Sharh al-Kabīr , ed. Muḥammad ‛Allīsh (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, n.d.), [2/176].
[18] Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Siyāsah al-Shar’īyah [1/165].
[19] al-Shawkānī, al-Sayl al-Jarrār [4/532].
[21] Narrated in Imām Aḥmad's Musnad, §3254 and by Muslim in his Sahih, 3:1444 §1812.
[20] Dr. Muḥammad Khayr Haykal, al-Jihād wa al-Qitāl fī al-Siyyāsah al-Shar‛iyyah, 2nd ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Bayāriq, 1996/1417), [2/1246]
[22] Narrated in Imām Aḥmad's Musnad, §15162.
[23] al-Sarakhsī, al-Mabsūṭ, 10:5-6.
[24] Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdīsī, al-Mughnī, 3:277.
[25] Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977, Article 77.
[26] Narrated by Abū Dawūd in his Sunan, Kitāb al-Jihād, 3:37 §2614.
[27] Narrated by Ibn Abī Shayba in al-Musannaf, 6:484 §33133.
[28] Ibid, §33135.
[29] Narrated by Ibn Asākir in Tarīkh Dimashq al-Kabīr, 27:404.
[30] al-Shirāzī, al-Muhadhdhab [3/277] and Imām al-Nawawī, al-Majmū', [21/55]
[31] al-Shawkānī, al-Sayl al-Jarrār [4/533].
