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Who Is There For Our Prisoners Of War?
In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a place called "Camp
X-Ray", a group of Muslim POWs are right now living in horrible
conditions that demand from us our sympathy and support.
Furthermore, in the UK more than 14 men have been detained for over
2 years although they have never been charged or allowed trial,
justified by government representatives in flagrant violation of
internationally recognised human with little, if any, media
coverage. This topic must be broached in as many forums as possible,
and I hope that my few words here will be a contribution to this
collective obligation. We are equally obligated to do what we can
for the Palestinian prisoners of war in Israel and the Muslim
prisoners of war in Russia, America, and other places throughout the
world.
Imprisonment is a part of human experience; especially when it comes
to war, though imprisonment and captivity certainly occur during
peacetime.
In savage societies throughout history, prisoners of war had no
rights. They were crucified, burned to death, slaughtered, and
tortured without their captors being answerable to anyone. In a few
primitive societies, like some of those found in Oceania, they were
even the victims of cannibalism.
Imprisonment, with all of its bitterness, isolation, uncertainty,
and estrangement from family and loved ones, ignites within the
prisoner the fires of longing, yearning, love, and hope. This is why
imprisonment has often been a time of great literary creativity.
Such suffering has been behind innumerable great works of literature
as well as many of the profound insights that have shaped our world
throughout history. One thing that prisoners often have at their
disposal is idle time.
Al-Mu`tamad b. `Abbād, the famous Andalusian king, was taken
prisoner by his rivals and transported to Morocco where he remained
a captive in Aghamāt until his death. When his daughters visited him
on the day of `Īd, he said these famous lines of poetry:
O how these festive days had been of joy.
In Aghamāt, a captive, bitter be!
Your daughters ragged, starving, you must see,
In destitution, in others' employ.
How they come to see you in disgrace,
So broken and hollow, their eyes downcast;
Such dirty feet; as if had never past
On musk and camphor they had tread in grace.
He in sovereignty, contented seems,
After you, dwells in beguiled dreams.
The poet of the Arabs, al-Mutanabbī, penned the following verses
while in prison:
I beseech you in the woe that has exhausted me
And the weight of heavy irons bearing down my feet;
I beseech you when all chance of hope is lost to me
And death, lingering at my throat, I have chance to meet.
How these feet in sandals used to stroll carefree and strong,
How in chains and fetters now they glumly plod along.
Then there are the verses that al-Mutanabbī wrote to Abū Dalaf after
he had sent a gift to al-Mutanabbī in prison, though Abū Dalaf was
the man who had spoken ill of him to the Sultan:
Naught to me is the long confinement and pestilence,
O Abū Dalaf! Nor the prison nor the irons;
I accept your gift against my will and preference,
As carrion is the pleasure of starving lions.
O prison! Be as you will, for I am reconciled
Unto Death, who by your bidding along with me dwells.
If by lodging within you my honor were defiled,
Scarce would precious pearls be lodging within oyster shells.
Among the most eloquent of `Alī b. al-Jahm's poems is one which he
penned while in prison:
What that they say: "You have now been captured"?
Is a tempered sword without a scabbard?
Let not the buffets of time's wrath dreary
Despair you of release from misery.
Oft survives a person deathly ill -
'Tis on his doctors that Death does his will.
Be patient; for patience brings with it rest.
Our Guardian Lord no hand dares contest.
From each affair another one unfolds.
Perhaps this hateful one more honor holds.
Sālih b. `Abd al-Quddūs has this well-known poem to his credit,
though some have attributed it to `Abd Allah b. Mu`āwiyah:
While of its denizens, from the world we have departed;
Neither dwelling with its corpses nor among the living.
On the strange occasion when the jailors do their bidding,
We gasp in awe: "Lo! `Tis from the world they have appointed."
In dreams we do rejoice, and most of our conversation
Is upon our waking when we speak of where we'd been.
If fair had been the dream, it would remain a thing unseen
If the dream were ill, swift would be its realization.
The Roman Poems of Abū Farrās al-Hamdānī are some of the most famous
poems written by a prisoner of war. The following is possibly the
most eloquent of these:
They say: "What fortitude keeps back your tears!
Are naught there affections that hold you sway?"
But nay, am I full of anguish and fears,
But I am one to keep my heart at bay.
In truth the fire glows within my breast.
If kindled by my memories rehearsed;
My love would I visit, but first calls death;
Let no rain fall if I must die in thirst.
A captive I've become while with my men;
And not unproven were master and steed.
But when Allah, of his decrees doth send,
Not land or sea can save you from the deed.
My comrades said that I must flee or die;
What bitter option can the sweetest be!
To that which brings me no disgrace I fly;
The best of choices is captivity.
How swift for valor of our lives we sell;
How much the dower be to wed a belle.
From contemporary poetry, we have Hāshim al-Rifā`ī's "Letter on the
Eve of Execution" which opens with the following couplet:
Father, father, what can I write?
Sword and hangman await tonight.
Sayyid Qutb wrote a poem while in prison entitled "From Behind Bars"
which begins with the following verses:
My brother, you are free behind these gates.
My brother, you are free within these chains.
For if upon Allah you do rely,
The intrigues of his slaves can bring no pains.
Since detention is a part of human experience, especially in
wartime, Islam has set down laws to govern the affairs of prisoners
of war, showing us how to treat them in a manner that is proper,
just, and pleasing to our Lord. In the pages that follow, we will
outline briefly the way in which Islam approaches prisoners of war.
We will also see how they are dealt with according to the man-made
laws that were set down after World War Two as a response to years
of atrocities where hundreds of thousands were imprisoned and the
corpses piled higher. Islam, on the other hand, set down its laws
from the beginning, neither in response to any problems nor under
the influence of any special pressures |
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