Almost every country in the modern age torture prisoner to make him confess to their crimes, in Pakistan torturing prisoners is a norm and there are many cases in which prisoner died in custody and during interrogation.
Sheikh Ata was asked what is the opinion of Islam about this, whether Islam allows beating prisoner to get some information from him?
He responded that Islam prohibits it and it is a great sin & crime to torture anyone. He quoted a hadith that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said:
“Allah would torture those who torture people in this world”.
He further explained that confession and information extracted under torture is not acceptable under Islamic judiciary because the prisoner was forced and was not in a situation to say what he wants to. Prophet (PBUH) said:
“Verily Allah has pardoned [or been lenient with] for me my Ummah: their mistakes, their forgetfulness, and that which they have been forced to do under duress”.
Explaining this hadith Sheikh said that “So whatever one is forced to do under duress he must not be punished for it.”