The prisoner must be provided with food, drink and suitable clothing throughout the year as well as medical attention and medicine as and when required. All of this must be provided in the prisoner’s comfort.
Imam Sadiq (A) is reported as saying that when Imam Ali (A) was assassinated by Ibn Moljim, while on his deathbed, Imam Ali (A) said:
“Detain this prisoner, feed him and treat him well while in detention. If I live I shall deal with him; if I want I shall seek (compensation) from him, and if I want I shall forgive him and I shall reconcile with him. But if I die it is up to you. If you decide to kill him do not mutilate him4.” However, it is clear that Imam Ali (A) wished his followers and next of kin to forgive his killer Ibn Moljim, as the former is quoted in the Nahj_ul_Balaghah5:
“Until yesterday I was a companion of yours, today I am lesson to you, and tomorrow I shall leave you. If I survive, I shall be responsible for my blood [i.e. whether to prosecute or to forgive the perpetrator], and if I die, death is my destiny. If I forgive, forgiveness is a means of closeness (to Allah), and it (forgiveness) is a good deed for you, therefore forgive (him), Don’t you love Allah to forgive you6? ”
There are exceptional circumstances where the prisoner is subjected to harsh treatment in an attempt that this hardship will make him relinquish the rights of others, (which is the outcome in most cases), when he will be released7. An example of such cases is the dispute raised by a woman to Imam Ali (A) about her husband. The husband had stopped his sexual activities with her and at the same time refuses to divorce her.
The woman wanted her husband to either resume his sexual life with her or divorce her. It is reported that Imam Ali (A) detained the husband in a shed and fed him on one quarter of his normal diet in order to make him divorce his wife. It is clear that this imposed hardship was to make the husband either resume a normal sexual life with his wife or divorce her, in either case he would be released from detention8. In another similar report, unless the husband would resume normal (sexual relationship with his wife), he would be imprisoned in an enclosure made of straw, and his food and drink rationed until he divorces (his wife)9.
