Due to its humanitarian mandate and relations built over many years around the Muslim world, the ICRC has long consulted with Muslim leaders, scholars, academics and humanitarians to understand the Islamic laws of war and how they compare to international humanitarian law (IHL), otherwise known as the law of armed conflict. It has also sought to understand Islamic perspectives on humanitarian action, and compared and contrasted them with its own principles. The aim of this dialogue is to encourage two-way learning and debate on key issues of humanitarian concern, and to improve the protection of human life and dignity during armed conflict or other humanitarian crises.

This online reference library hosts a collection of books, articles, reports and multimedia produced in the course of this work. It provides a vital resource for academics, scholars, researchers and professionals who wish to access relevant and reliable resources on the topics of Islam and IHL, and Islam and humanitarian principles. These resources are based on the sources of Islamic law, the classical jurisprudential schools and the research of contemporary Muslim scholars, and were mostly developed in partnership between important centers of Islamic learning and the ICRC.

The library will be updated periodically to reflect emerging scholarship and to make additional resources available in digital format. Much continues to be done to make this work better known to communities of interest and concern. This includes following up on suggestions from local religious and community leaders to translate some of the aforementioned studies into other languages.

Please find the the latest (Sep 2023) version of the library below or download it here.