Muslim Prisoners Of War

Ibn Hajar Al-Haythami said:

“If the enemy captures a single Muslim, it becomes wajib (obligatory) on everyone who has the ability to rush to their rescue (even without seeking anyone’s permission). It is apparent that it is compulsory on everyone, similar to the situation where the enemy invades our land. Moreover saving our brothers is of a higher priority, as the sanctity of a Muslim is greater (than the sanctity of a State).”

[Tuhfah Al-Muhtaj, 9/237]

A Letter From Faatimah (A Prisoner In Aboo Ghuraib)

Ibn Hajar And The Jew

Ibn Hajar Al Asqalani (a chief of the court in Egypt) used to wear very nice clothes. Once he met a Jew wearing old /torn clothes. The Jew stopped Al Asqalani and asked him: “Don’t you see the situation I am in and compare it with the bounty you enjoy, although I am unbeliever and you are believer? How can you explain your Prophet’s saying: ‘Life on this earth is like a prison for the believers and a garden for unbelievers?’”

Ibn Hajar answered him: “Although you have a miserable life on earth, you will consider yourself in paradise compare to what you will suffer in the hereafter if you die as an unbeliever. For me with all this bounty I have, if Allah Subhanahu wata’ala will reward me with Paradise, then this life will be like a prison to me compared to life in Paradise.”

The Jew said, “If it is so, then I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet.”

The hadeeth is saheeh. Collected in Muslim, Ahmad, Tirmithee, & Ibn Maajah.

Source

The Body And Soul, By Ibn Al-Qayyim

The body of the son of Adam was created from the earth and his soul from the government of Heaven and then they were joined.

If he is hungry, stays awake, and keeps his body busy in serving Allah, his soul will find itself lighter and more peaceful so that it would long for the place from which it was created and miss its heavenly world. But if he secures food, blessings, sleep, and rest, the body will incline to remain at the place from which it was created and the soul would be pulled along with it and be in a prison.

If it was not for the fact that it would get used to that prison, it would ask for help, as a tortured person does, to find relief from the pain resulting from the separation and departure from its own world from which it was created.

[Al-Fawaa’id: A Collection of Wise Sayings]

Source

“Am I one of the oppressors…?”

When Ahmad bin Hambal was imprisoned, one of the prison guards came to him and asked him:

“O Abu ‘Abdillah! The hadith that is narrated regarding the oppressors and those that aid them – is it authentic?”

He said: “Yes.”

The prison guard then said: “So, I am considered to be an aide of the oppressors?”

Imam Ahmad replied: “No. The aides of the oppressors are those that comb your hair, and wash your clothes, and prepare your meals, and buy and sell from you. As for you, then you are one of the oppressors themselves!”

[‘Manaqib al-Imam Ahmad’, by Ibn al-Jawzi, p. 397]

Source

Ibn Taymiyyah’s Attitude Upon Entering Prison

Ibn Taymiyyah’s Attitude Upon Entering Prison

It was related that when Ibn Taymiyyah was being transported by the ruler’s representative to prison in Alexandria, a bystander saw him and said: “My master, this is the time for patience.”

So, Ibn Taymiyyah looked at him and replied: “Rather, this is the time to be thankful. By Allah, such joy and happiness are descending upon my heart at this moment that if it was divided between the people of Sham and Egypt, there would be some left over, and if I had that amount in gold and distributed it, it would not equal even a tenth of the blessing that I am experiencing.”

Later on, on Monday the 6th of the month of Sha’ban 726 AH, he was again arrested on orders from the ruler, and was ordered transferred to the Citadel Prison in Damascus. When he first learned of this, he said: “I was waiting for this, and this contains great benefit.” When he was later in the prison, he said: “If this prison was exchanged for its weight in gold, I would not consider this to be enough to repay this blessing I am in and the good that it has brought me.”

When he entered the grounds of the Citadel Prison in Damascus, he stood and looked at its walls, reciting the verse: “…So a wall will be put up between them with a gate therein. Inside it will be mercy, and from the outside, it will be torment.” [al-Hadid; 13]

[Ibn ‘Abd al-Hadi’s ‘al-‘Uqud ad-Durriyyah’; p. 177-178, 365,p. 44 Ibn al-Qayyim’s ‘al-Wabil as-Sayyib’]