Muslims are merciful

DR RANA JAWAD ASGHAR

Narrated Ibn 'Umar: During some of the Ghazawat of Allah's Apostle, a woman was found killed, so Allah's Apostle forbade the killing of women and children. (Volume 4, Book 52, Number 258- Sahih Bukhari). In some other references, it has been told in detail that the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) was upset after seeing women's dead bodies and forbade killing any women or children in future battles. Just think about the time. It was fourteen hundred years ago in what we call as black ages and Arabs at that time were the most savage nation. But Hazrat Muhammad changed this nation of unruly and corrupt tribes in to a nation of high moral values. He was a true Mohsin Insaniat and is even now, because of his teachings of love, respect and tolerance. Islam means peace and this is the only religion with this meaning.

Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) transformed this nation so drastically with his teachings of Allah the merciful, that when Hazrat Abu Bakar (RA the first Caliph and his close lieutenant) had to make official rules for Islamic armies, he made the following rules taking into account Allah and his Prophet's (PBUH) teachings.

1. No old man, no child, no women shall be slain.

2. No hermit shall be molested nor his place of worship damaged.

3. Corpses of the fallen shall not be mutilated or disfigured.

4. No fruit-bearing tree shall be cut down, no crops burned, no habitation devastated.

5. Treaty obligations with other faiths shall under all circumstances be honoured and fulfilled.

6. Those who surrender shall be entitled to all rights and privileges of a Muslim subject.

(Hazrat Abubakar, Unique role of the first caliph By Prof Ziauddin Ahmad)

All the above mentioned rules are very clear from Quran and Hadith. There is absolutely no ambiguity in them.

Now read the news published in The Nation. "17 Hindus shot dead in Held Kashmir" JAMMU - At least 17 Hindus were shot dead in their beds by unknown attackers in a remote village in the strife-hit state of Kashmir, officials said Sunday. The Border Security Force (BSF) said armed persons attacked the village of Barankot, around 200 kilometers north of this Kashmir winter capital, late Saturday and opened fire indiscriminately. He said the attackers also torched eight houses in the village, located in the region of Udhampur. The police said the victims included two women and four children. Udhampur police official Mohammed Iqbal told AFP the attack could have been staged to avenge a military operation launched against Muslims in an adjoining village.

I am convinced that just like Algeria this may be one of the tactics of occupying forces of India to discredit the freedom fighters. In Algeria, where whole villages are being destroyed and all are killed and blamed on Islamic groups. But now people have started questioning army role in these killings. Even in West, newspapers have now started reporting claims that these killings are being done by Government forces to discredit the Muslim Groups there and produce hatred for them in general population. This became more apparent when major Islamic groups in Algeria openly and categorically denounced these killings.

India is known to assassinate prominent Muslim figures in Indian held Kashmir and then blame it on Kashmiri freedom fighters. But we have to fight this propaganda. The major Muslim freedom fighter groups should clearly denounce these types of killings because if they remain silent on incidents like this, they will loose in the very important war of public sympathy. Ethnic Cleansing is now a crime by UN standards and now Special Forces are hunting war criminals of past for their deeds. But we are part of a religion in which it was a crime even fourteen hundred years ago when everywhere else it was a "just" war tactic.