Islam's Strict Prohibitions Against Killing Women, Children and Other Defenceless People (Summary)
What Is Islam's Strict Prohibitions Against Killing Women, Children and Other Defenceless People About?
Islam is repeatedly accused of being a religion that glorifies violence — particularly on the basis of attacks on women, children and other defenceless people, to which numerous groups with a claimed connection to Islam have publicly confessed in the past, elevating their so-called Jihad (striving in the way of Allah, here in its military sense) to the highest principle in the process. Through a Hadith-based analysis of the earliest Islamic source texts, it is examined whether such conduct is actually in keeping with what follows from the Qur'an and Sunnah.
The foundation is Qur'an verse 2:190, which explicitly describes fighting as a response to an aggression by the enemy. Through the interpretation of this verse by the Companion of the Prophet Ibnu 'Abbas, as well as by the Umayyad Caliph 'Umar ibnu 'Abdi l-'Aziz and the Tafsir scholar At-Tabari, it is shown that women, children and all other non-combatants are strictly excluded from fighting. Numerous Hadiths of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم as well as instructions from the first two Caliphs Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and 'Umar ibnu l-Khattab confirm this prohibition and explicitly extend it to elderly people, monks, farmers and field workers, labourers and servants, as well as merchants.
On this basis, the argumentation of groups with a claimed connection to Islam that seek to legitimise violence — the so-called "Islamic State", the al-Qa'idah leadership and the ideologue Abu Mus'ab as-Suri — is refuted, as these groups attempt to justify attacks on civilians through the principle of retaliation or the collective guilt of the population. This criticism has already been raised since 2010. Finally, war crimes with no connection to Islam are also addressed, to make clear that the deliberate killing of civilians is not a phenomenon confined to any one religion.
Key Points of Islam's Strict Prohibitions Against Killing Women, Children and Other Defenceless People
- Qur'an verse 2:190 explicitly describes fighting as a response to an aggression by the enemy, not as an unlimited permission.
- The claim that this verse was fully abrogated by a later Qur'an verse (Naskh — the abrogation or restriction of an earlier revealed ruling by a later one) is incorrect — the early scholars did not use Naskh to mean a complete abrogation of the verse.
- The Companion of the Prophet Ibnu 'Abbas explained on the basis of this verse: "Do not kill the women, children, the elderly, or anyone who offers you peace and withholds his hand."
- A Hadith transmitted by Ibnu 'Umar in Al-Bukhari and Muslim shows that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, upon finding a slain woman during a military campaign, prohibited the killing of women and children.
- The consistent legal reasoning ('Illah — the underlying legal cause of a ruling) given is the absence of participation in fighting — the prohibition therefore also extends to groups of people not explicitly named in the Hadiths, such as the blind, the infirm and the chronically ill.
- The prohibition is explicitly extended to elderly people, monks in their cells, farmers and field workers, labourers and servants, as well as merchants of the opposing side.
- The first Caliph Abu Bakr as-Siddiq charged the armies he sent out with ten rules, including the prohibition against killing women, children and the very elderly, felling fruit-bearing trees, destroying settlements and needlessly slaughtering animals.
- The second Caliph 'Umar ibnu l-Khattab reaffirmed this prohibition several times in writing to his troop commanders.
- Besides the prohibition of killing, the traditions also warn against mutilating corpses, deceiving the enemy, and fraud or unlawful enrichment from war spoils (Ghulul).
- The prohibition is unanimously attested in the most important early Hadith collections, in some cases already in their chapter headings, including the Al-Muwatta' of Malik ibnu Anas and the Musnad Ahmad ibnu Hanbal.
- The early ideologue Abu Qatadah al-Filastini, close to al-Qa'idah, caused a stir with a Fatwa that also concerned attacks on women and children.
- The argumentation of the so-called "Islamic State", the al-Qa'idah leadership around Aiman az-Zawahiri, and the ideologue Abu Mus'ab as-Suri, which seeks to justify attacks on civilians through the principle of retaliation or the collective guilt of the population, fundamentally contradicts these sources.
- This criticism of violence-legitimising groups with a claimed connection to Islam has already been raised in other publications since 2010.
- War crimes against civilians with no connection to Islam, such as the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, likewise show that the deliberate killing of defenceless people is not a phenomenon confined to any one religion.
Content Structure of the Book
- Introduction and methodological notes: the occasion for the work, the treatment of chains of transmission and source references, and a reference to the digital library al-Maktabatu sh-Shamilah.
- Foundation in the Qur'an: verse 2:190 and its interpretation by Ibnu 'Abbas, 'Umar ibnu 'Abdi l-'Aziz and At-Tabari, and the Hadith about the slain woman found during a military campaign.
- Extension of the prohibition to further defenceless groups: the elderly, monks, farmers and field workers, labourers and servants, and merchants — with instructions from the Caliphs Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and 'Umar ibnu l-Khattab, as well as statements from early scholars (Salaf) such as Mujahid and Al-Hasan.
- Unanimous attestation and concluding remarks: evidence of the prohibition in the chapter headings of the early Hadith works, and an assessment of the evidence.
- Refutation of violence-legitimising groups with a claimed connection to Islam: criticism of the so-called "Islamic State", the al-Qa'idah leadership around Aiman az-Zawahiri, and Abu Mus'ab as-Suri.
- A comparative look at war crimes with no connection to Islam: including the My Lai massacre and incidents involving US special operations in Afghanistan.
- Closing word and appendix: notes on transliteration, a chronological index of authors, and a bibliography.
Key Terms (Glossary)
- Fatwa
- A religious-legal ruling applied to a specific case; may only be issued by those sufficiently qualified.
- Ghulul
- Embezzlement or unlawful enrichment from war spoils.
- Hadith / Isnad
- A transmitted report from the Prophet, or its chain of transmission — the central tool of verification in Islamic Hadith science.
- 'Illah
- The underlying reasoning or legal cause of a religious-legal ruling (in this work: the absence of participation in fighting as the reasoning for the prohibition of killing).
- Jihad
- Striving or effort in the way of Allah; in the military sense, fighting conducted according to the rules of Islamic law.
- Naskh
- The abrogation or restriction of an earlier revealed ruling by a later one.
- Salaf
- The early, righteous generations – and in particular their scholars.
- Shari'ah
- Islamic law.
Methodology and Sources
The argumentation follows the methods of Hadith science: the numerous traditions cited are deliberately presented without an extensive discussion of the individual chains of transmission (Isnad), since the sheer abundance of concurring traditions — even by the standards of Hadith science itself — already establishes their basic authenticity; obvious weaknesses in individual chains of transmission are pointed out separately where relevant. Sources cited include Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, the Al-Muwatta' of Malik ibnu Anas, the Musnad Ahmad ibnu Hanbal, the Sunan works of Abu Dawud, At-Tirmidhi, Ibnu Majah and An-Nasa'i, the Musannaf and Musnad of Ibnu Abi Shaybah, the Sunan works of Sa'id ibnu Mansur and Ad-Darimi as well as the Tafsir works of Ibnu Abi Hatim ar-Razi and At-Tabari. All Qur'an translations were produced specifically for this work following a comparison of established translations, with the original Arabic texts included throughout. The source used for the cited editions is predominantly the digital library al-Maktabatu sh-Shamilah. Every scholar cited is introduced with their date of death (see the index of authors at the end of this page).
Who Is Islam's Strict Prohibitions Against Killing Women, Children and Other Defenceless People Relevant For?
The work is deliberately written to be easily understandable and can be read without any prior knowledge of Islam or the Islamic sciences — it is not addressed exclusively to an academic readership, but to anyone examining the question of whether attacks on women, children and other defenceless people can be reconciled with the Islamic source texts. It thus addresses both Muslims seeking a well-founded, source-based answer to the accusation of glorifying violence, and non-Muslims critically engaging with this question.
Further Reading
Chronological Index of Early Islamic Authors
Sorted by date of death (first by the Hijrah calendar, then by the Christian calendar).