User:Devotus/Banu Qurayza Analysis
Analysis
Influence on Islamic public international law (Siyar)
Muslim jurists were acquainted with the incident and based their judgements and decrees on the account of the demise.[1] The well known Muslim jurist Ash-Shafii (767-820), for example, examined the incident and on this basis elucidated the problem of individual and collective punishment: he decreed that those that remained passive while being in the territory of a people breaking a compact with the Muslims should be punished even if they themselves did not actively participate.[1] Another famous scholar, al-Mawardi (972-1058), put the incident in a religious context, opining that it was a religious duty of the prophet and his companions to kill the Qurayza.[1] According to Meir J. Kister, al-Mawardi's opinion reflects the current Sunni position on demise of the Qurayza.[1] Ash-Shaybani (750-805) uses the case of the Qurayza to argue that the killing of the fighting men is permitted after the fighting has ceased.[1] He furthermore considers it preferable to kill the men with their hands untied but allows for tying their in case of necessity.[1] He also emphasizes that the men about to be killed should be provided with food and water, using similar actions by Muhammad towards the Qurayza as precedent.[1] However, the demise of the Qurayza was not taken as a model for the relationship of Muslim rulers toward their Jewish subjects.