Introduction
The prohibitions within Islamic law against killing women, children and other defenceless people were well-known among early Muslims and their scholars. Throughout the centuries, Muslims, at large, have maintained this notion in both their beliefs and their actions.
The text at hand examines how this prohibition establishes throughout the primary scriptures of Islam. Doing so will reveal how these commandments reappear throughout the scriptures and how, correspondingly, the early scholars, regents and commanders adhered to them.
Another inducement to write this paper is the common assumption these days that Islam would be an inhumane religion which glorifies violence. This perception has lately been fuelled by contemporary groups, with the so-called “IS” leading the way. The analysis provided below, however, clearly objects to the misconceptions and beliefs of such groups.
This paper aims to counter the actions of the so-called “IS” and al-Qa'idah and highlight that these are contradictory to the teachings of Islam. Islam denounces killing the defenceless, and those who commit these acts, Islam denounces as criminals.
The reader should clearly and unequivocally note that the transgressions of these groups are not only restricted to this one prohibition at hand. The fact that this paper focuses on a selected subject and does not touch upon others, should not allow the reader to come to the false conclusion, that these groups, their ideology or their actions are in any way or form legitimate.
The assumption that I, the author of this paper, were only rejecting the named actions and otherwise endorsing these groups would be highly absurd. In advance, I hereby clarify that I vehemently object to such distorted readings of my writings.