Construing the Killing of Women, Children and Other Defenceless People as Acts of Transgression

Main Part · Full-text chapter from the book Islam's Strict Prohibitions Against Killing Women, Children and Other Defenceless People · Read as PDF

The preceding verse is read as a broad instruction and applies on a societal scale. It does however also apply to the individual and their actions. In terms of the individual, this directive instructs them to exclusively fight those who are indeed fighting against them. Defenceless and non-combatant persons are fundamentally excluded from this.

It is for this reason that the verse, and the prohibition against transgression formulated therein, is construed to pertain specifically to women, children and all other defenceless people, according to a number of scholars.

In correspondence, Ibnu Abi Hatim ar-Razi's⁷ رحمه الله⁸ Qur'an exegesis relates the following narration from Ibnu 'Abbas رضي الله عنه⁹, a Companion of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, as an explanation of this verse:

عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ، قَوْلُهُ: وَلا تَعْتَدُوا يَقُولُ: لَا تَقْتُلُوا النِّسَاءَ وَالصِّبْيَانَ وَالشَّيْخَ الْكَبِيرَ وَلا مَنْ أَلْقَى السَّلَمَ، وَكَفَّ يَدَهُ، فَإِنْ فَعَلْتُمْ هَذَا فَقَدِ اعْتَدَيْتُمْ. وَرُوِيَ، عَنْ عُمَرَ بْنِ عَبْدِ الْعَزِيزِ وَمُقَاتِلِ بْنِ حَيَّانَ، نَحْوُ ذَلِكَ ...

About the word of Allah “but do not transgress”, Ibnu 'Abbas is reported¹⁰ to have said:

“Do not kill women, children, the elderly and those who offer you peace and have withdrawn their hands. If you are to do so, you will have transgressed!”

The same has also been narrated from 'Umar ibnu 'Abdi l-'Aziz, Muqatil ibnu Hayyan and others […]

In identical wording, the same narration from Ibnu 'Abbas رضي الله عنهما can be found in At-Tabari's (died 310 AH/923 CE رحمه الله) tafsir, as an annotation to the named verse and then followed by At-Tabari's exegesis of the last part of the verse:

{إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُعْتَدِينَ} الَّذِينَ يُجَاوِزُونَ حُدُودَهُ، فَيَسْتَحِلُّونَ مَا حَرَّمَهُ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ قَتْلِ هَؤُلَاءِ الَّذِينَ حَرَّمَ قَتْلَهُمْ مِنْ نِسَاءِ الْمُشْرِكِينَ وَذَرَارِيِّهِمْ ...

“Surely Allah does not love the transgressors”: Those who transgress His boundaries by legitimising the killing of those people, whom Allah has forbidden to kill.