Surah al-Takwīr (The Folding Up)

Shaykh al-Islām said:

Section

His words:

“And when the girl buried alive is asked for what sin she was killed”

are evidence that no person may be killed except for an offense they have committed. Thus, neither a child nor an insane person may be killed, because they are exempt from moral accountability and therefore bear no sin. There should be no doubt that this is a reason for the prohibition against killing the children of those at war with the Muslims. As for the reason they share with women, it is that they are not combatants—according to the correct view, which is that of the majority—or that they come into the Muslims’ possession.

However, this alone cannot serve as the reason in the case of children. The verse entails condemnation of killing anyone, young or old, who has committed no offense. Questioning the girl is a rebuke to her killer.

As for His words in this surah:

“Indeed, it is the word of a noble messenger,”

through to His words:

“And it is not the word of an accursed devil,”

the messenger is Gabriel. This parallels what appears in Surah al-Shuʿarāʾ: the angels brought it down, not the devils. Lies and the like, by contrast, are brought down by the devils. Thus, a distinction is drawn between the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the habitual liar, the poet, and the soothsayer, and between the angel and the devil. The scholars are the heirs of the prophets.