ISIS justifies burning of living human because they believed the Rashidun Caliphs did so too in their time. Do we have a well-documented account of the burning by the caliphs?

by diporasidi

I attended a lecture on ISIS. There were several interesting insights, but one of them shows how ISIS justifies the burning of Jordanian pilot in two ways:

  1. A book called Idarat Tawahhusy claims that scare tactics is important in an Islamic movement to show that any opposition to caliphate movement shall be punished so severely.
  2. ISIS justifies the action of the burning because in the past, Abu Bakr (not al-Baghdadi, but one of the Rashidun Caliphs) and Ali ibn Abi Thalib did the same to a living person to "send a message" to the enemy during that time.

I'm most interested in point two. The lecturer didn't explain more about his sources on number two. So I am left in questions. Do we have a good account on this incident? In what context that those Rashidun Caliphs burnt an enemy alive? Because such action is condemned by many Muslim worldwide, even among the al-Qaeda.

Additional question: has there been any work investigating the history of torture in Islamic history? The only torture I know in Islamic history is Abbasid's mihna, but I must be wrong.

Loknik

Idarat Tawahhusy is written anonymously by a jihadi going by the false name of Abu Bakr Naji. IS members have confirmed that the book is part of the ''organisation's'' curriculum, however, it is at odds with both the Quran and Hadith on burning people alive -- but that's not to say it's at odds with what we know about the actions of Muhammad and Abu Bakr. This is complicated though, because there is evidence, despite the Quran and Hadith, that both Muhammad and Abu Bakr not only torched buildings with people inside but also burned people directly. It is also made more complicated because Sunni Muslims acknowledge the authority of “consensus.” Consensus in Sunni jurisprudence is such an important principle that it is rated as something almost infallible.

That said, IS members hold the consensus that there were three acts of immolation which were either carried out, or approved, by the first Muslim caliph Abu Bakr, however many Sunni clerics dispute the references to burning people alive, although there are sources which cite both the Rashidun caliph under Abu Bakr and Muhammad were both burning bulidings which had persons inside and burning people as a means of torture, and putting peope to death by fire.

In 627CE. Muhammad led an attack against the Al-Mustalaq tribe, the tribe decided to fight rather than surrender and Muhammad ordered their buildings to be burnt, even with the knowledge there were people inside. A year later in 628CE, when Kinanah bin al-Rabi of the Bani al-Nadir tribe would not reveal where his conquered tribe’s treasures were hidden, Muhammad ordered one of his soldiers to torture him for information by burning him (although he remained alive) "so a fire was built on Kinanah’s chest until Kinanah nearly died". Two years after that in 630CE, Muhammad experienced some resistance among the Muslims towards his plans to attack the Byzantines at Tabuk, Muhammad knowing that Byzantines were gathered in a particular house, he ordered that the house be burned down on top of them, on this occasion the Byzantines managed to escape from the fire.

Later, during the wars of Apostasy (Civil wars disguised as wars of apostasy) under Abu Bakr; Abu Bakr sent out a letter of warning to the tribes prior to attack which quoted from The History of al-Tabari: The Conquest of Arabia, p. 57, part of the letter stated:

will not spare any one of them he can gain mastery over, but burn them with fire, slaughter them by any means…

and

ordered a fire to be kindled with much firewood in the prayer yard of Medina and threw him, with arms and legs bound, into it.

and the order Abu Bakr gave to his commander:

…kill them by every means, by fire or whatever else.

and from Abridged Biography of Prophet Muhammad, p. 345, Abu Bakr gave the command:

Kill their wounded, seek out those of them who flee, put the captives among them to the sword and strike terror among them by killing and burn them by fire.

Despite all of that, these actions are condemned in the Quran (the holy book which Muslims follow and which they believe to be the word of God), in fact, there are only two references to burning people alive in the Quran, in both cases the burning is carried out by unbelievers who are burning the Islamic believers, not the other way around. One of these instances is the burning of Abraham by the King, but according to the story Abraham escaped. The second instance where burning people is mentioned is in surah burooj (85:5), where a group of believers are burned by unbelievers for no reason other than their belief in the Islamic God.

There is also a hadith (sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad) which does say Muhammad gave an order to his companions to find (some people) and burn them. There are no reasons given why he gave that order and no clear description who is to be subject to the burning, however according to the story, Muhammad had second thoughts and changed his order and orders his companions to kill them but not to burn them because only God can punish with fire - source: http://sunnah.com/bukhari/56/225.

Sources:

Fred McGraw Donner, The History of al-Tabari: The Conquest of Arabia

Imam Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab At-Tamimi, The Abridged Biography of Prophet Muhammad.

Islamic military jurisprudence source: Ali ibn al-Athir, Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, Vol.3.

Quran and Hadith.