Special Treatment For Son-in-Law Of Prophet Muhammad (sws) As A Captive Of Badr
It was revealed in Quran 47:4 before the battle of Badr to either release the prisoners of war by taking bounty from them or to release them gratuitously and the matter was left at the discretion of Prophet Muhammad (sws) . Therefore, Prophet (sws) was free to decide after considering circumstancees of each prisoner that which of them whould be charged with financial penalty, which of them should be charged with non-financial penalty in lieu of fidya and which of them should be freed gratuitously. Therefore, Dr. Khalid Masud writes: “ it is known that Seventy men of the Quraysh were taken prisoner during the Battle of Badr. Obtaining their freedom was a matter of great humiliation for the Quraysh. Relatives of the prisoners came to the Prophet (sws) to request their release. In Surah Muhammad, he had been instructed to take the enemy prisoner in case of a war; then, if he let them go as a favour, or took ransom and then released them, both ways would be acceptable. In the light of this instruction, he took a maximum of 4,000 and a minimum of 1,000 dirhams per person according to his economic status. Those who did not have any wealth were asked to teach Muslim children how to read and write. Some were even released on promise of remaining neutral. The prisoners included the Prophet (sws)’s uncle Abbas and son in law Abu al-As. Abbas was a wealthy man. The Prophet (sws) obtained ransom for two of his nephews, Aqil ibn Abi Talib and Nawfal ibn Harith as well as an ally Utbah ibn Amr. As ransom, to have Abu al-As released, the Prophet (sws)’s daughter, Zaynab (rta) sent her gold necklace, which her mother Khadijah had given to her at her wedding, from Makkah. Seeing this, the Prophet (sws) became tearful. After approval from the Muslims, he returned the necklace and released Abu al-As on the condition that as soon as he reached Makkah, he would bring Zaynab (rta) to Madinah “ . (Hayat-e-Rasul e Ummi) (English Rendering by Nikhat Sattar) Therefore, no such special treatment was made for Abu Al-As, instead he was freed on the condition of bringing Zaynab (rta) to Medina which was a form of non-financial penalty in lieu of Fidya.