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TREATMENT OF THE CAPTIVES

Putting persons in incarceration is an ancient practice. When persons were termed criminals and defaulters by the ruling establishment, they were put in dark dungeons and jails. Therefore, the story of Yūsuf (a.s) being put in the jail is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an:

فَلَبِثَ فِي السِّجْنِ بِضْعَ سِنِينَ.

“…so Yūsuf remained in the prison a few years. (12/42)”

During the Prophet’s times, prisoners of war used to be kept in captivity. Even after the Prophet (a.s), persons used to be incarcerated for various offences. But instead of locking them up in any building, they used to be pushed into dark and empty wells. Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) stopped this practice and kept them in specially constructed jails. He was the first to establish a full-fledged jail for the offenders. Shaykh `Ala’ al-Din writes:

“In Islam the first to build a jail was `Ali ibn Abi-Talib. The other Caliphs used to throw the captives in to wells.”[1]

In the beginning the Imam (a.s) got an enclosure erected with bamboo and then converter it into a permanent building. `Allamah al-Zamakhshari writes:

“He constructed the jail with bamboos and called it Mani`. When the thieves cut holes into that, walls were constructed with stones and pebbles and called the structure as Makhis.”[2]

During the Umayyad and `Abbasid reigns, the captives were put into dungeons and none was allowed to meet them. They were kept totally away from any exposure to the outer world. They were generally put to so much torture that few escaped alive from captivity.

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`Ali (a.s) never put anyone in captivity as a revenge. He generally punished such persons with captivity who had cheated or usurped others assets and the assets of orphans. The purpose of keeping them in captivity for short spells was to reform their criminal tendency to help them reclaim the respect that they had lost. They were allowed to come out of the jail at appointed times at prayer times generally the gates of the jail were kept open. They were provided with dresses to suit the weather. If they came from economically better background, the cost of their upkeep used to be the responsibility of their families. If the captives were poor, their expenses were met from the bayt al-mal.