Mercy towards prisoners of war in Islam

March 624: Uqbah bin Abu Muayt

A similar story as that of al-Nadr can be told about Uqba bin Abu Muayt. He too harassed and mocked Muhammad in Mecca and wrote derogatory verses about him. He too was captured during the Battle of Badr, and Muhammad ordered him to be executed. "But who will look after my children, O Muhammad?" Uqba cried with anguish. "Hell," retorted the prophet coldly. Then the sword of one of his followers cut through Uqba’s neck.

After the prophet’s victory at Badr, he was not always magnanimous. This passage finds him mocking the enemy dead in the middle of the night, as their bodies lie motionless in a pit:

. . . The apostle’s companions heard him saying in the middle of the night, "O people of the pit: O Utbah, O Shayba, O Ummayya, O Abu Jahl,"  enumerating all who had been thrown in the pit"Have you found what Allah promises you is true? I have found that what my Lord promised me is true." The Muslims said, "Are you calling to dead bodies?" He answered: "you cannot hear what I say better than they, but they cannot answer me. (Ibn Ishaq, p. 306)

The reliable hadith collector and editor Bukhari confirms Ibn Ishaq’s account.

These were the battles of Allah's Apostle (which he fought), and while mentioning (the Badr battle) he said, "While the corpses of the pagans were being thrown into the well, Allah's Apostle said (to them), 'Have you found what your Lord promised true?" 'Abdullah said, "Some of the Prophet's companions said, "O Allah's Apostle! You are addressing dead people.' Allah's Apostle replied, 'You do not hear what I am saying, better than they.' ( http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/059.sbt.html#005.059.360" rel="nofollow - Bukhari )

In this tradition the prophet is shown taunting the dead in a well, not a pit, and he seems to have done this in broad daylight. Maybe these are two different episodes in Ibn Ishaq and Bukhari; regardless, they convey the same unpleasant message.

Why should this taunting surprise us, since Muhammad learned it from Allah? Sura 7 was revealed before Muhammad’s Hijrah in AD 622, and the Quran in Sura 7:44 says:

And the dwellers of Paradise will call out to the dwellers of the Fire (saying): "We have indeed found true what our Allah had promised us; have you also found true, what your Allah promised (warnings, etc.)?" They shall say: "Yes." Then a crier will proclaim between them: "The Curse of Allâh is on the Zâlimûn (polytheists and wrong­doers, etc.)" (Hilali and Khan, their insertions).

This passage, using surprisingly similar language as that recorded in Ibn Ishaq and Bukhari, says that the dwellers of Islamic paradise yell at the dwellers of hell, and this scene apparently takes place in the Last Day. But Muhammad gets a head start after the Battle of Badr and down here on earth.

What makes these double murders so terrible is that the accusations that Muhammad invented fables turn out to be true.