[1] In earlier times, the ransom sometimes took an educational dimension, where a literate prisoner of war could secure his or her freedom by teaching ten Muslims to read and write.
-Quran 4:75-76[7]Many of the Islamic rules regarding prisoners of war ("POWs") come in the aftermath of the Battle of Badr, in which Muslims captured 43[7]-70 enemy combatants.
[7] During his life, Muhammad made it the responsibility of the Islamic government to provide food and clothing, on a reasonable basis, to captives, regardless of their religion.
[10] Pasquier writes, It was the custom to enslave prisoners of war and the Islamic state would have put itself at a grave disadvantage vis-a-vis its enemies had it not reciprocated to some extent.
By guaranteeing them [male POWs] humane treatment, and various possibilities of subsequently releasing themselves, it ensured that a good number of combatants in the opposing armies preferred captivity at the hands of Muslims to death on the field of battle.
[12] William Muir wrote of this period: In pursuance of Mahomet's commands, the citizens of Medîna, and such of the Refugees as possessed houses, received the prisoners, and treated them with much consideration.
[24] According to the authentication of Muslim scholars, women and children prisoners of war cannot be killed under any circumstances, regardless of their faith,[10] but that they may be enslaved, freed or ransomed.
Women who are neither freed nor ransomed by their people were to be kept in bondage and referred to as ma malakat aymanukum (slaves) to give them their rights to survive peacefully, and they could not be left astray.
Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, a Nigerian extremist group, said in an interview, "I shall capture people and make them slaves" when claiming responsibility for the 2014 Chibok kidnapping.
Specifically, ISIL argued that the Yazidi were idol worshipers and justified the sexual slavery of the captured non-muslim victims as a permissible manner of enjoying the spoils of war.
[27][28][29][30][31][32] ISIL appealed to apocalyptic beliefs and "claimed justification by a Hadith that they interpret as portraying the revival of slavery as a precursor to the end of the world.
"[33][34][35][36][37][38] One traditional opinion holds that executing prisoners of war is strictly forbidden; this is the most widely accepted view, and one upheld by the Hanafi madhab.
This opinion was also held by the Muslim judge, Sa'id bin Jubair (665-714 AD) and Abu Yusuf, a classical jurist from the Hanafi school of jurisprudence.
[4] El Fadl argues that Muslim jurists adopted this position largely because it was consistent with the war practices of the Middle Ages.
[42][better source needed] The 20th-century Muslim scholar, Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi states that no prisoner should be "put to the sword" in accordance with a saying[which?]
"[45][43] Quoting from the sources, Muhammad Munir, from the Department of Law of the International Islamic University, Pakistan, says that early religious authorities standing against the execution of POWs at all include 'Ali b. Abi Tãlib, Al-Hasan b. al-Hasan al-Basrl (d. 110/728), Hammãd b. Abi Sulaymän (d. 120/737), Muhammad b. Sirin (d. 110/728), Mujãhid b. Jabr (d. 103/721), 'Abd al-Mãlik b.
'Abd al-'Azïz b. Jurayj (d. 150/767), 'Atâ' b. Abi Rabãh (d. 114/732) and Abû 'Ubayd ibn Sallãm,[46] while later scholars favouring the same opinion include Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Qurtubl (d. 671/1272), who cites 47:4 in proposing the impossibility of execution if the letter of the Qur'an is followed.