On Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025, the Grand Imām of Al-Azhar, Dr. Aḥmed al-Ṭayyib, delivered remarks on the occasion of the Prophet Muḥammad’s birthday (mawlid) at the Manāra International Center in Cairo. For Muslims, this year’s anniversary was significant because it represented 1,500 years since the Prophet Muḥammad’s birth. During the speech, Dr. Aḥmed al-Ṭayyib spoke primarily about the Prophet’s merciful character and the laws of war in Islam. The end of the speech contained numerous important comments about Palestine and the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

The translation of the speech was prepared for Dialogue Across Borders by Francine ʿAbd al-Mālek and Sāra al-Shirbīnī.

Excerpt:

Among the attributes with which he (i.e. the Prophet Muḥammad) was endowed, mercy stands out as the one most befitting a call meant to cross the horizons of the earth and transcend the limits of time and place. It was itself the preparation that matched the universality of his message. Thus, we see a universal message accompanied by a universal mercy—embracing people in all the dualities of their character: good and evil, righteousness and wickedness, justice and oppression, guidance and misguidance, obedience and disobedience. As we read in the Qurʾān:

 “We have sent you [Prophet] only to bring good news and warning to all people.” (Q 34:28)

 “We sent you [Prophet] only as a mercy to all people.” (Q 21:107)

 “A messenger has come to you from among yourselves. Your suffering distresses him: he is deeply concerned for you and full of kindness and mercy towards the believers.” (Q 9:128)

 “By an act of mercy from Allah, you [Prophet] were gentle in your dealings with them.” (Q 3:159)

 And we read in the sayings of the Prophet:

“I am only a gift of mercy.”

 Whoever reflects upon the life of this merciful Prophet realizes, with clarity, that mercy was his most distinctive attribute—an essential quality from which all his actions, words, and dealings flowed with his family, his Companions, his friends, and even his enemies throughout his noble life. Although proving this claim exhaustively or citing every instance from his blessed biography would exceed the limits of this address, what is most fitting on this occasion is to highlight the “laws of war” established by the Prophet and how they affirm the noble Qurʾānic verse:

 “We sent you [Prophet] only as a mercy to all people.” (Q21:107)

In essence, wars from ancient times until the present have been arenas of violence, aggression, and mutual killing by both sides. They are spaces where cruelty, trickery, lying, and deception are lauded, and where mercy is rarely praised. Wars in Islam might have been expected to follow the same pattern—and even had they done so, no reproach would have fallen upon Muslims. Yet the final, everlasting law (sharīʿah)presented humanity with unprecedented, stringent principles. Muslim jurists developed a detailed body of rulings, derived from the Qurʾān and the Sunnah of the Prophet, covering jihād, the rules and ethics of war, what is obligatory and what is prohibited, what is permissible and what is forbidden, peace treaties, prisoners of war, guarantees of safety, and all matters pertaining to international relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in peace and war.

These rulings formed an independent branch of jurisprudence in early Islamic history known as fiqh al-siyar. Among its earliest works were al-Siyar al-Ṣaghīr and al-Siyar al-Kabīr, both authored by Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī (d.805 CE)—one of the eminent jurists of the second Islamic century—whom modern legal studies describe as the pioneer of international law, predating by centuries the 17th-century Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, often called the “father of international law.