The Ruling on Dealing Harshly with Prisoners
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, is it permissible to deal harshly with prisoners?
Answer:
It depends on the public benefit that the Imam of the Muslims sees. If he sees that they should be killed, he kills the prisoners; if he sees that he should accept ransom from them and release them, he does that. The Imam is given the choice regarding them and chooses what is best for the Muslims.
When the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) accepted ransom from the prisoners of Badr, Allah rebuked him for that,[Al-Anfal 8:67], Allah rebuked him for that, because the Muslims at that time needed to instill fear in the hearts of the disbelievers. But when Islam became strong, there is no harm in accepting ransom from a disbeliever prisoner and releasing him, if that is in the interest of the Muslims.
Honorable Shaykh, is it permissible to deal harshly with prisoners?
Answer:
It depends on the public benefit that the Imam of the Muslims sees. If he sees that they should be killed, he kills the prisoners; if he sees that he should accept ransom from them and release them, he does that. The Imam is given the choice regarding them and chooses what is best for the Muslims.
When the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) accepted ransom from the prisoners of Badr, Allah rebuked him for that,
It is not for a prophet to have captives [of war] until he inflicts a massacre [upon Allah 's enemies] in the land.
مَا كَانَ لِنَبِيٍّ أَن يَكُونَ لَهُ أَسْرَىٰ حَتَّىٰ يُثْخِنَ فِي الْأَرْضِ
Source
الإثخان في الأسرى — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.