Legal Literacy - As long as humans exist, conflicts will always be present in the world as a consequence of the freedom to choose (free will). However, on the other hand, humans also create and/or compile a rule, whether it originates from morality divine revelation or humans themselves, to limit or regulate so that the wars can at least proceed without causing unnecessary losses, whether lives or property. These humanitarian rules are possessed by nations in the world, for example, according to Jean Pictet, as contained in the heroic poem Mahabharata and the laws of Manu

5 People Who Are Prohibited from Being Attacked in Conflicts According to Islam

So, long before humanitarian products such as the Geneva and Hague Conventions or the Lieber Code were known, humanitarian law was already known, but it was limited to what was adhered to by each country and nation. One of these nations is the Arab nation, especially when Islam began to enter and be spread by the Prophet Muhammad SAW. In that belief, a rule is structured that forms the law Islam, one of which concerns immunity against Non-combatants in a conflict. There are 5 categories that the Prophet used as prohibitions to be attacked, namely:

  • Women
  • Children
  • the elderly
  • Clergy
  • Al-Asif (Hired person)

Based on this prohibition, two differentiating categories emerged in Islam regarding targets that are permissible and not permissible to be attacked, namely al-muqatilah/ahl al-qital/al-muharibah (combatants) and ghair al-muqatilah/ghair al-muharibah (non-combatants). The term muqatilah comes from the verb yuqatil (to fight/compete), while the term muqaribah comes from the verb yuharib (to fight in war).

Both uses of these terms originated from the time of the Prophet. However, many experts of law disagree on legitimate targets in this war due to their disagreement in determining the Islamic casus belli. Therefore, al-Shafi'i (820 AD) and Ibn Hazm (1064 AD) considered that the Islamic casus belli was the enemy's infidelity, and anyone who refused to pay jizyah, other than children and women, was a legitimate target of war.

Meanwhile, the majority of experts of law consider that the Islamic casus belli is the enemy's aggression and not infidelity alone, expanding the list of five categories of non-combatants by applying legal analogy methodology to include other types of non-combatants. They are more focused on efforts to register categories of enemies and distinguish who qualifies as a legitimate target in war and who does not. All these provisions are compiled with reference to the Al-Quran, hadith, and other Islamic sources as the basis for decisions. The categories are described as follows: