Islam & the Historical Context of Civilian Casualties

Muslim Rebuttals
Jul 20, 2017 · 3 min read
“Don’t look at me like I am a monster/ Frown out your one face but with the other/ Stare like a junkie/ Into the TV/ Stare like a zombie/ While the mother holds her child. Watches him die/ Hands to the sky crying “Why, oh why?”/ ’cause I need to watch things die/ From a distance/” -Tool

Many defenders of Islam condemn the idea of accepting collateral damage and civilian death to further a military or political cause. This is usually done in two ways.

  1. “The main reason why terrorists come from Muslim backgrounds is that the West has killed too many civilians in military operations in the Middle East. Terror has nothing to do with Islam and is a result of the West’s disregard for civilians. Killing civilians in order to kill terrorists creates more terrorists.”
  2. “Accepting civilian casualties has nothing to do with true Islam. Islam values human life. So it’s totally against Islam to kill a legitimate target if you know that many civilians will die in the process.” (This is usually referencing suicide attacks)

Now, let’s look at an authenticated and verified quote from Muhammad from Sahih al-Bukhari, the most trusted collection of the sayings and teachings of Muhammad. Let me remind you that this quote has the exact same level of authenticity as every seemingly-peaceful/feminist/happy quote that Muslims cite:

From Sunnah.com

Narrated As-Sab bin Jaththama:

The Prophet (ﷺ) passed by me at a place called Al-Abwa or Waddan, and was asked whether it was permissible to attack the pagan warriors at night with the probability of exposing their women and children to danger. The Prophet (ﷺ) replied, “They (i.e. women and children) are from them (i.e. pagans).” I also heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, “The institution of Hima is invalid except for Allah and His Apostle.”

حَدَّثَنَا عَلِيُّ بْنُ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ، حَدَّثَنَا الزُّهْرِيُّ، عَنْ عُبَيْدِ اللَّهِ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ، عَنِ الصَّعْبِ بْنِ جَثَّامَةَ ـ رضى الله عنهم ـ قَالَ مَرَّ بِيَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم بِالأَبْوَاءِ ـ أَوْ بِوَدَّانَ ـ وَسُئِلَ عَنْ أَهْلِ الدَّارِ يُبَيَّتُونَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ، فَيُصَابُ مِنْ نِسَائِهِمْ وَذَرَارِيِّهِمْ قَالَ ‏”‏ هُمْ مِنْهُمْ ‏”‏‏.‏ وَسَمِعْتُهُ يَقُولُ ‏”‏ لاَ حِمَى إِلاَّ لِلَّهِ وَلِرَسُولِهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏”‏‏.‏

Reference : Sahih al-Bukhari 3012In-book reference : Book 56, Hadith 221USC-MSA web (English) reference : Vol. 4, Book 52, Hadith 256 (deprecated numbering scheme)


So here we see Muhammad being asked if it was permissible to attack a group of people if it meant that non-combatants (women and children) would be also be harmed and his response was that they are all the same so proceed as planned.

Don’t we condemn people with this mentality? Don’t we condemn Western superpowers when they accept civilian casualties? Well, Muhammad, the founder of Islam, had the exact same mentality. So how can anyone still say that a Muslim who accepts killing women, children, and non-combatants to further his cause is not a true Muslim and is twisting the Quran and words of Muhammad to suit his needs which are, like, TOTALLY un-Islamic?

“But that’s an English translation. In classical Arabic, it could’ve meant something totally different.”
What else can it mean? Yes, context can be lost in translation, but the overall idea can be confirmed by any Muslim scholar. How else is the translation argument even relevant at this point?

Please leave a rebuttal in the comments or send an email to MuslimRebuttals1@gmail.com to remain anonymous. All sound rebuttals will be edited into this article.

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Muslim Rebuttals

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A Place for Muslims to respond to claims made against Islam with intelligent counter-points.

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