CHAPTER 6
THE KORAN ON LOOT OR
SPOIL
The
Koran's injunctions on looted property which includes women and children and
those men that for some reason or other were not killed in raids and were taken
as captives. Such men, women and children were classed as slaves. The slaves
were merchandise that could be sold, maltreated or killed without compunction
with or without valid reason, by the believer.
LIX/5-6:
Whatsoever palm-trees ye cut
down or left standing on their roots, it was by Allah's leave, in order that He
night confound the evil-livers. And that which Allah gave as spoil unto His
messenger from them, ye urged not any horse or riding-camel for the sake
thereof, but Allah giveth His messenger lordship over whom He will. Allah is
Able to do all things.
XLIX/20-21:
Allah promiseth you much
booty that ye will capture, and bath given you this in advance, and bath
withheld men's hands from you, that it may be a taken for the believers, and
that He may guide you on a right path. And other (gain), which ye have not been
able to achieve, Allah will compass it. Allah is Able to do all things.
VIII/41:
And know that whatever ye
take as spoils of war, lo! a fifth thereof is for Allah, and for the messenger
and for the kinsman (who bath need) and orphans and the needy and the wayfarer,
if ye believe in Allah and that which We revealed unto Our slave on the Day of
Discrimination, the day when the two armies met. And Allah is Able to do all
things.
VIII/65:
O Prophet! Exhort the
believers to fight. If there be of you twenty stedfast they shall overcome two
hundred, and if there be of you a hundred stedfast they shall overcome a
thousand of those who disbelieve, because they (the disbelievers) are a folk
without intelligence.
VIII/67-69:
It is not for any Prophet to
have captives until he bath made slaughter in the land. Ye desire the lure of
this world and Allah desireth (for you) the Hereafter, and Allah is Mighty,
Wise. Had it not been for an ordinance of Allah which had gone before, an awful
doom had come upon you on account of what ye took. Now enjoy what ye have won,
as lawful and good, and keep your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Forgiving,
Merciful.
VIII/73:
And those who disbelieve are
protectors one of another. - If ye do not so, there will be confusion in the
land, and great corruption.
Footnotes
1. vv. 67-69 were
revealed when the Prophet had decided to spare the lives of the prisoners taken
at Badr and hold them to ranson, against the wish of Umar, who would have
executed them for their past crimes. The Prophet took the verses as a reproof,
and they are generally understood to mean that no quarter ought to
have been given in that first battle.
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