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The ethics of war (akhlaq al-harb), as Ragheb El-Sergani presents them

أخلاق الحرب (في عرض راغب السرجاني)

The limits Ragheb El-Sergani says Islam set on war so that it does the least harm: that war is not sought for its own sake, that non-combatants are not killed, that covenants and safe-conduct are kept, that there is no wanton destruction of trees and houses of worship, and that captives are treated well; he sets his own count of those killed in the Prophet ﷺ's campaigns against the dead of the Second World War.

Depth

At a glance

Region
Global / Diaspora
Review

Contested: This record includes matters on which scholars differ. The speaker's views are labelled as his, and other views are marked where no cited source yet exists.

Laws of war and peaceEthics and character

Summary

The ethics of war, as Ragheb El-Sergani presents them in the fifteenth episode of the programme What Did Muslims Bring to the World, are the limits he says Islam set on war so that it stays at the least harm possible: that war is not sought for its own sake, that non-combatants are not killed, that covenants and safe-conduct are kept, that there is no wanton destruction, and that captives are treated well. 1 2 3 This entry presents his view and his figures, attributed to him.

Morals as part of civilization

He says morals are an inseparable part of Islamic civilization, citing a hadith that makes the purpose of the mission the perfecting of noble character, and one that those nearest to the Prophet in the gathering on the Day of Resurrection are those best in character. 4 5 6 Good character, he says, is not tied to a place: it is required in the mosque and the home and on the battlefield, and the world did not know the phrase "the ethics of war" until Islam. 7 1 He holds that Muslims do not fight out of a wish to fight but under necessity, war being for them the last stage, "and the last remedy is cautery". 2

The count of those killed in the campaigns (the speaker's view and figures)

He says he himself counted those killed in the Prophet's lifetime to gauge how bloody his wars were, and that the Prophet fought in twenty-five or twenty-seven campaigns, as the historians differ, and thirty-eight expeditions, at least sixty-three engagements in all. 8 9 He says the Muslims killed in them numbered two hundred and sixty-two, that the total killed, Muslims and others, was about one thousand two hundred and eighty-four over ten years, and that this was about one and a half per cent of the armies that fought. 10 11 12 13 He sets this against the Second World War, saying its fighters numbered fifteen million six hundred thousand and the dead more than three times that number, and mentions Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the bombing of German cities. 14 15 16 17 (needs_source: figures from his own count without detail of his sources; the number of non-Muslims killed is inconsistent in the machine transcript and is not written.)

Non-combatants

He says one of the most important limits of the Sharia is that civilians are not killed, citing the Prophet's forbidding the killing of the old man, the woman and the small child, and the command in Surat al-Baqara to fight those who fight you. 18 19 20 He relates that Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) charged the armies setting out for Persia to fear God regarding the peasants, and that the Prophet was angered on seeing a woman killed in one of the battles, saying she had not been fighting. 20 21 See also: the prohibition of killing women, children and labourers.

Covenant and safe-conduct

He says that "war is deception" concerns military planning and indirect speech, not the breaking of a covenant, that the Prophet charged his armies not to act treacherously, and mentions the disowning of whoever grants a man safety and then kills him. 22 23 24 25 See: aman.

No wanton destruction

He cites Abu Bakr's charge to the armies setting out for Syria and Persia not to cut down a fruit tree, hamstring a palm or pull down a church, and not to kill a beast except for food, and says the Muslims pulled down in their battles only fortresses and what military need required. 26 27 28 29

Captives

He closes the episode with the treatment of captives, citing the prisoners of Badr and the story of Thumama ibn Uthal (may God be pleased with him). 30 31 32 See: the prisoners of Badr, the capture and Islam of Thumama ibn Uthal.

Connections

Explore the connections

Subject of
What Did Muslims Bring to the World (television programme)
Related to
Aman (safe-conduct granted to enemies in war)· Prohibition of killing women, children and non-combatant labourers in war

People and things also explored

What Did Muslims Bring to the World (television programme)· Aman (safe-conduct granted to enemies in war)· Hayawan (animal: food, slaughter, zakat and care)· The capture of Thumama ibn Uthal al-Hanafi and his acceptance of Islam· Ahl al-Dhimma (the protected non-Muslim subjects of an Islamic state, their covenant, rights, duties and limits)· Asabiyya (group solidarity)· Freedom in Islam· The science of history

Sources

  1. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:04:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  2. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:05:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  3. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:05:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  4. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:02:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  5. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:03:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  6. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:03:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  7. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:04:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  8. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:07:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  9. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:08:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  10. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:08:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  11. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:09:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  12. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:09:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  13. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:10:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  14. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:10:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  15. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:11:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  16. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:11:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  17. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:12:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  18. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:14:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  19. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:15:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  20. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:15:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  21. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:16:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  22. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:17:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  23. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:17:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  24. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:18:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  25. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:18:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  26. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:21:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  27. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:21:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  28. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:22:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  29. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:22:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  30. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:23:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  31. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:24:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  32. Assabile archive of Ragheb El-Sergani's lessons , What Did Muslims Bring To The World, episode 15, at 00:25:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The ethics of war (akhlaq al-harb), as Ragheb El-Sergani presents them”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/akhlaq-al-harb/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-01.

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What Did Muslims Bring to the World (television programme)

A television programme whose regular guest is Ragheb El-Sergani, of which the Assabile archive keeps fifteen video episodes. In them he answers the host's questions on what Islamic civilization gave the world: civilization defined by three relationships, the world and Arabia before Islam, the Qur'an and Sunna as the springs of civilization, the contribution of non-Arabs, the society of Medina and its balance, the rights of human beings, minorities and animals, and the ethics of war.