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Refuting Claimz

Did the Prophet Allow Killing Women and Children? A Complete Islamic Response

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Response to the Claim that the Prophet Permitted the Killing of Women and Children

Table of Contents

The Text of the Doubt

(4503) — Yahya ibn Yahya, Sa’id ibn Mansur, and Amr al-Naqid all narrated to us, on the authority of Ibn ‘Uyaynah. Yahya said: Sufyan ibn ‘Uyaynah informed us, on the authority of al-Zuhri, on the authority of ‘Ubayd Allah, on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas, on the authority of al-Sa’b ibn Jaththama, who said: The Prophet was asked about the children of the polytheists. They attack them at night and take from their women and children. He said: “They are from them.”

In this hadith, the Christians object by saying that the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, orders the killing of children and women, and they repeat this so often that I feel fed up with it, so I tried hard to ask you and summarize the response, and I ask that God make it sincere for His sake.

A Brief Response

Summary of the Islamic Position Islam explicitly forbids the killing of women and children unless they are fighting.

1. Sahih Muslim states: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade the killing of women and children.” This hadith explicitly forbids their killing and requires distinguishing between them, so you can tell which is a woman and which is a child.

2. The scholars of this nation have unanimously agreed on this, and on acting upon this hadith and prohibiting the killing of women and children if they do not fight. If they do fight, the majority of scholars say: They are to be killed. As for the elders of the infidels, if they have an opinion, they are to be killed.

3. The hadith does not talk about premeditated murder, so one should not ask whether it is permissible or forbidden! Rather, the hadith is about night fighting, which may result in the unintentional killing of a child or a woman. The meaning of “laytūt” is: (al-baytūtah: entering at night).

Imam al-Nawawi — Sharh Sahih Muslim He was asked about the ruling on the children of the polytheists who attack during the night and their women and children are killed. He said: They are of their fathers, meaning there is nothing wrong with that because the rulings of their fathers apply to them in inheritance, marriage, retaliation, blood money, and other matters. What is meant is if they did not do it intentionally and without necessity.

As for the previous hadith prohibiting the killing of women and children, what is meant by it is when they are distinguished.

A Detailed Response

First: Evidence and Texts Prohibiting the Killing of Women and Children

Scholarly Consensus Scholars do not disagree that the basic principle in Islamic law is the prohibition of killing women and children in jihad.

On the authority of Ibn Umar — may God be pleased with them both — who said:

“A woman was found murdered during one of the campaigns of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace. The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, forbade the killing of women and children.” — Narrated by Al-Bukhari and Muslim

In the hadith of Rabah bin Al-Rabi’, narrated by Imam Ahmad, when the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, saw a woman killed, he condemned it and said:

“This woman was not meant to fight.”

Scholars have also proven the prohibition of killing those who do not participate in combat activities — who are called these days “civilians” — by saying that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, sent a man to Khalid ibn al-Walid, may God be pleased with him, who was at the forefront of the army, and said:

“Tell Khalid not to kill a woman or a slave.” — Abu Dawud, with a sound chain of transmission

A slave here is a hired worker who does not fight. Other texts indicate the prohibition of killing anyone who does not participate in combat, such as monks, farmers, and others.

Ibn Abd al-Barr — Al-Tamhid “The scholars are unanimously agreed on the general opinion of this hadith, and they do not consider it permissible to kill the women and children of those at war, because they are not among those who fight in most cases.”
Imam al-Nawawi — Sharh Sahih Muslim “The scholars are unanimously agreed on the prohibition of killing women and children if they are not fighting.”

Second: The Basic Principle Regarding Women and Children

It is not permissible to kill them or transgress against them. Allah the Almighty says:

{ And fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress. } — Al-Baqarah: 190

Ibn Jarir al-Tabari — Tafsir “The transgression that Allah has forbidden them is His prohibition against killing women and children.”

Third: The Purpose of War in Islam

The Islamic Position on War War was not legislated in Islam for revenge and vengeance, but rather it was legislated to establish truth and justice and to repel injustice and aggression.

Therefore, Islam forbids the killing of children, women, the elderly, monks, and anyone who does not participate in the war by action, opinion, or planning. This is the general principle, but if any of the mentioned women and children participate in fighting the Muslims, whether they directly do so or assist in it, then it is permissible to kill them. An exception to this prohibition is cases in which a raid is carried out on the enemy from a distance, as it is difficult to distinguish civilians from others.

Fourth: Circumstances All Nations Have Agreed Upon

Universal Agreement The circumstances in which it is permissible to kill women are circumstances that all nations and civilizations have agreed upon, even in the modern era. They are in three states.
First Case: Active Participation in War

If they participate in the war in reality or in law — whether by carrying weapons, inciting people to fight, spying for the combatants, ensnaring Muslim women in a way that leads to violation of their honor, their killing, or their arrest, or by giving advice, counsel, incitement, etc. — then the prohibition on killing them is lifted, and it is permissible to kill them in war.

Imam al-Nawawi — Sharh Sahih Muslim (7/324) “The scholars are unanimously agreed to act upon this hadith and to prohibit the killing of women and children if they do not fight. If they do fight, the majority of scholars say: They fight…”

They cited as evidence the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said when he saw a woman killed, “She would not have fought,” which indicates that if she had been fighting, it would have been permissible to kill her.

Ibn Qudamah — Al-Mughni “Whoever fights among these people, or among women, or among the elders, or among the monks in battle, shall be killed. We do not know of any difference of opinion on this matter.”
Al-Kasani — Bada’i’ Al-Sanai’ “The same applies if he incites people to fight, or points out the faults of Muslims, or if the infidels benefit from his opinion, or if he is obeyed, even if he is a woman or a child, because fighting is inherently permissible.”
Second Case: Military Raids and Ambushes
This is the intended meaning of the objector’s argument.

If Muslims are forced to launch a comprehensive raid on the enemy, or to fire at them from a distance, this may lead to the killing of women, children and civilians. It is obligatory not to target them initially. However, if they are killed in these raids, there is no sin on those who kill them.

This may happen in contemporary wars, when bombs are dropped on military barracks located between residential buildings. Muslims are not responsible for the consequences of this because it is the enemy who exposed innocent civilians to this by hiding among them. If the enemy had the courage, he would have confronted his opponent. If the innocent had sense, they would not accept that their lives be a fortress for cowards.

Al-Sa’b ibn Jaththama said:

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was asked about the children of the polytheists who attack them by night and kill their women and children. He said: “They are from them.” — Narrated by Muslim

The meaning of “they are from them” is that their ruling is the same as that of their fathers.

Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar — Al-Fath “The meaning of ‘night raid’ intended in the hadith is: to raid the infidels at night, such that one cannot distinguish between them.”
Imam al-Nawawi — Sharh al-Nawawi (7/325) “This hadith that we mentioned about the permissibility of them raiding at night, and killing women and children in such a way, is our school of thought and the school of thought of Malik, Abu Hanifah, and the majority. The meaning of ‘night raid’ is to raid them at night, such that one cannot tell the man from the woman or the child.”
Imam Al-Bahuti — Al-Rawdh Al-Murabba’ (1/441) “It is permissible to attack the infidels by night, and to shoot them with a catapult, even if it kills a child or the like unintentionally.”
Imam Ibn Hajar — Fath Al-Bari (6/147) “What is meant is not that it is permissible to kill them by intentionally targeting them, but what is meant is if it is not possible to reach the fathers except by having intercourse with the offspring. If they are injured, due to their mixing with them, it is permissible to kill them.”
Third Case: Female Combatants

They even recruit their women into their armies. Killing female combatants is a natural and legitimate matter. It is just for them to kill a female combatant. This also applies to children and elderly combatants, whose killing is just.

Exposing the Fallacies and Double Standards

First: The Fallacy of Generalization

Logical Fallacy Their doubts are based on generalizing the rule of a part to the whole. Generalizing the rule of a part to the whole is a deception and a fallacy.

They have turned the exception into the rule and ignored — or perhaps concealed — the texts when presenting their doubts to the layperson.

Second: Double Standards

Double Standard We will give a practical example from the same issue and its cases above.

Now we find the infidels, under the guise of the war on terror, striking Muslim cities and villages with planes and missiles, and our children are being killed by the millions, deliberately. You find the objecting Christian turning a blind eye to his own people and their actions, which are so rampant among them that it has become the general rule among them, and he refuses to accuse his religion and Christianity of the actions of his people!

This is despite the absence of texts in his book that order not to kill women, and the presence of explicit texts ordering their killing! However, when he stops at a practical case among Muslims, he passes it off as Islam, despite the presence of explicit Islamic texts that forbid their killing.

Third: Contradiction of Universal Principles

1. All nations, religions and customs have not prohibited unintentional killing in raids and wars, but rather permitted it while attempting to reduce its consequences.

2. Reason compels this objector to acknowledge the permissibility of reciprocal treatment: If their attack on our cities and villages results in the unintentional killing of innocent people, they justify it. If Muslims attack their cities and villages in reciprocal treatment, it will be just, despite the expected deaths of some of their women and children who are not combatants. The ruling here is that he is one of them. He is aware of this, but he turns a blind eye so that his suspicion does not fall and collapse.

Fourth: Their Own Sacred Texts Command the Killing of Women and Children

Biblical Texts Commanding Killing of Women, Children, and Infants Those who put forth these doubts should not have turned a blind eye to what is stated in their sacred books, and should not have applied the command to kill the elderly, children, and women to the rulings of Islam, which are more merciful and wiser.

Numbers 31:17

“Now therefore kill every male among the little children; and every woman who has known man by lying with him, kill her.”

Deuteronomy 20:16

But in the cities of these nations which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes.

Joshua 6:21

And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city—man and woman, young and old, ox, sheep, and donkeys—with the edge of the sword.

Even animals, not just children, women, and the elderly, were not spared from the bloody nature of their book, which they sanctify.

1 Samuel 15:3

Now therefore go and attack the Amalekites, and utterly destroy all that they have. Do not spare them; put to death both man and woman, infant and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

Psalm 137:8–9

O daughter of Babylon, who is destroyed, blessed is he who repays you with the recompense that you have given us! Blessed is he who takes hold of your little ones and hits them against the rock!

Could this be the word of God????

Isaiah 13:15–16

Everyone who is found will be pierced, and everyone who runs away will fall by the sword. Their little ones will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be plundered, and their women will be exposed.

Ezekiel 9:5–7

Pass through the city after him and smite him; let your eye not spare, nor have mercy. Old and young, maiden and child, and women—slay them utterly. And do not come near anyone who has the mark on him, but begin at my sanctuary.’ So they began with the elders who were before the temple. And he said to them, ‘Desecrate the temple and fill the courtyards with the slain. Get out.’ So they went out and killed in the city.

Hosea 13:16

Samaria will be punished because she has rebelled against her God; by the sword they will fall. Their children are being crushed, and pregnant women are being torn open.

Historical Testimony This is how the Conquistador priests treated children and women in the Americas, applying the teachings of the Bible!

— From the book: Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Father Bartholomew de Lascasas https://www.lehigh.edu/~ejg1/doc/lascasas/casas.htm

There is a great difference between the rule of Allah Almighty and His Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, and the rules of the Torah, the book of which they have changed and distorted the word of God. They accuse Islam of lying. When have they ever been just throughout their bloody history?!