-
The Qur’an and Hadith
-
Some Historical Events and Treaties
-
Rights of the Non-Muslims
The humane and kind
treatment given by Islam to the non-Muslims who are conquered by
Islamic forces is another interesting subject connected with Jihad
which needs elaboration. If such non-Muslims embrace Islam they
are given cent per cent equal status with Muslims as Islam does
not punish the individuals for their past sins prior to their
conversion nor does it discriminate between man and man on the
basis of colour, race, blood, language, nationality, place of
birth or possession of wealth. Thus the newly-converted Muslims
enter into the universal fraternity of Islam and become brothers
of old Muslims with the same rights and obligations which the old
Muslims have. In case the defeated non-Muslims do not embrace
Islam and prefer to retain their old religion, they are given the
status of Zimmis (the protected or the covenanted People) and
become the respectable subjects of the Islamic state. After
payment of a tax of petty amount known as Jizyah (or
protection-tax) they become almost equal citizens with the Muslims
and enjoy the same socio-economic and legal rights which the
Muslim citizens have.
In this chapter we
shall discuss the status and rights given by the Islamic state to
its non-Muslim citizens. However, before doing so we need to go
through the verses of the Qur’an, Ahadith of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH),
some historical events and documents.
[Back
to the start of this chapter]
I-The Qur’an and Hadith
The verses of
al-Qur’an:
1. Al-Qur’an, the
revealed book of Islam, guarantees freedom of religion to the
non-Muslims in its following verses:
(i) There is no
compulsion in religion. The right direction is, henceforth,
distinct from error. And he who rejecteth false deities and
believeth in Allah hath grasped a firm hand-hold which will never
break. Allah is Hearer, Knower.
–––(2:Al-Baqarah:256)
(ii) Say: (It is)
the truth from the Lord of you (all). Then, whosoever will, let
him believe, and whosoever, will, let him disbelieve…….
–––(18:Al-Kahf:29)
(iii) Say: O
disbelievers!
I worship not that
which ye worship;
Nor worship ye that
which I worship.
And I shall not
worship that which ye worship.
Nor will ye worship
that which I worship.
Unto you your
religion, and unto me my religion.
–––(109:Al-Kafirun: 1-6)
2.
For dealing kindly and justly with the non-Muslims,
the Qur’an enjoins upon its followers: “Allah forbiddeth you not
those who warred not against you on account of religion and drove
you not out from your homes, that ye should show them kindness and
deal justly with them. Lo! Allah loveth the just dealers. Allah
forbiddeth you only those who warred against you on account of
religion and have driven you out from your homes and helped to
drive you out, that ye make friends of them. Whosoever maketh
friends of them-(all) such are wrong-doers.”
–––(60:Al-Mumtahanah:8-9)
3.
The Qur’an permits its followers to have close
social relations with the non-Muslim (Ahle-Kitab) in these words:
“….The food of those who have received the scripture is lawful for
you, and your food is lawful for them. And so are the virtuous
women of those who received the scripture before you (lawful for
you)….”
–––(5:Al Maidah:
5)
4.
The Qur’an permits the non-Muslims to settle their
mutual disputes in accordance with their religious or personal law
in its following verse: How come they unto thee for judgement when
they (the jews) have the Torah, wherein Allah hath delivered
judgement (for them)?
–––(5: Al Maidah:
43)
5.
The Qur’an does not permit intolerance in any
manner. The religion of the non-believers can neither be ridiculed
nor their deities and objects of worship can be condemned. The
Qur’an says: “Don’t abuse those whom they invoke besides Allah,
lest they should, in their ignorance, abuse Allah …..” (6:108). In
the case of preaching and propagation of Islam, the Prophet (PBUH)
and his followers have been instructed to be extremely polite and
respectful to the non-believers avoiding any aggressive methods
and offensive language. The Qur’an says:
Call unto the way
of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with
them in the better way.
–––(16:125)
6.
In the following verses, the Qur’an rules out
forced conversion of non-Muslims into the
fold of
Islam:
-
There is no compulsion in
religion.
–––(2:256)
-
Had Allah willed, they
had not been idolatrous. We have not set
thee as keeper over them, nor art thou responsible for them.
–––(6:107)
-
And if thy Lord willed, all who are in the earth would have
believed together. Wouldst thou (Muhammad)
compel men
until they are believers?
–––(10:99)
-
Say: O mankind! Now hath the Truth from your Lord come unto you.
So who-so-ever is guided, is guided only for (the good
of ) his
soul, and who-so-ever erreth, erreth only against it. And I am not
a warder over you.
–––(10:108)
Ahadith of
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):
The following
Ahadith of the Prophet of Islam are reproduced to highlight how
the Prophet (PBUH) exhorted his followers to honour their pledges
with the zimmis (protected people) and accord them the best
possible treatment:
(i) “If you fight
against a people and overpower them, and they agree to pay a fixed
indemnity of annual revenue (Kharaj) to you in order to
save their lives and those of their progenies, then do not take a
penny more than the fixed amount, because that will not be valid”.
–––(Abu Daud)
(ii) “Beware!
Whosoever is cruel and hard on such people i.e, (“Contractees”) or
curtails their rights, or burdens them with more than they can
endure, or realises anything from them against their free-will, I
shall myself be a complainant against him on the Day of Judgement.”
––– (Abu Daud)
(iii) “ Observe
scrupulously the protection accorded by me to non-Muslim subjects”
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is reported to have remarked on his
death-bed.
–––(Al-Mawardi
quoted by Dr. Hamidullah)
[Back
to the start of this chapter]
II-Some Historical Events and Treaties
Let us now examine
some historical events and the treaties of peace which were made
as result of these events, in the time of the Prophet and the
caliphs and judge for ourselves the kind of treatment given by the
Muslims to their subject nationalities.
1.
Prophet’s Migration to Madinah and the Charter of
Madinah:
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) migrated from Makkah to Madinah in the
year 622 A.D. Soon after his arrival in Madinah the Prophet
concluded a three-party treaty or alliance which is known in
history as the charter of Madinah. The parties to this charter
were Mahajreen (those Muslims who had migrated with Prophet from
Makkah to Madinah) and Ansar who had welcomed the refugees from
Makkah) and the Jewish tribes of Madinah. The portion of this
charter concerning the Jews reads as under:
“Whoever among the
Jews follows us shall have help and equality; they shall not be
injured nor shall any enemy be aided against them. The Jews
maintained their religion and the Muslims theirs.
Among the Jews (belonging to different
tribes), so with their adherents: those who transgress and behave
unjustly and sinfully hurt but themselves and their families.
Loyalty is a protection against treachery. The close friends of
Jews are as themselves. Each, if attacked, shall come to the help
of the other. The valley of
Yathrib (Madinah) shall be sacred and inviolable for all who join
this Treaty. Strangers under protection shall be treated on the
same grounds as their protectors.”
The Jews
unfortunately did not fulfil the terms of their pledge and instead
of helping the Muslims on the
occasions when Madinah was invaded
they conspired with the invaders and helped them against the
Muslims. So the Prophet was forced to take action against them.
Thus two tribes of the Jews (Banu Qaynuqa and Banu Nazir) were
expelled from Madinah while the third tribe (Banu Quraizah) was
given exemplary punishment in accordance with the decision
announced by the arbitrator appointed by the Jews themselves.
The treatment of
the Prophet of Islam with the Jews of Al-Madinah, especially the
killing of the men of Banu Quraizah, a tribe of Jews, is
generally criticised by the non-Muslims. However, Lane-Poole, a non-Muslim
historian defends it as follows:
“It is, I believe
solely on the ground of his treatment of the Jews that Muhammad
has been called “a blood thirsty tyrant”: it would certainly be
difficult to support the epithet on other grounds. The
bloodthirstiness consists in this: some half-dozen Jews, who had
distinguished themselves by their virulence against the Muslims,
or by their custom of carrying information to the common enemy of
Medina, were executed; two of the three Jewish clans were sent
into exile, (just as they had previously come into exile) and the
third was exterminated–––the men killed and the women and children
made slaves. The execution of the half-dozen marked Jews is called
assassination, because a Muslim was sent secretly to kill each of
the criminals. The reason is almost too obvious to need
explanation. There were no police or law courts or even
courts-martial at Medina; someone of the followers of Muhammad
must, therefore, be the executor of the sentence of death and it
was better it should be done quietly, as the executing of a man
openly before his clan would have caused a brawl and more
bloodshed and retaliation, till the whole city had mixed up in the
quarrel. Of the sentences upon the three whole clans, that of
exile, passed upon two of them, was clement enough. They were a
turbulent set, always setting the people of Medina by the ears;
and finally a brawl followed by an insurrection resulted in the
expulsion of one tribe; and insubordination, alliance with enemies
and a suspicion of conspiracy against the prophet’s life, ended
similarly for the second. Both tribes had violated the original
treaty, and had endeavoured, in every way, to bring Muhammad and
his religion to ridicule and destruction. The only question is
whether their punishment was not too light. Of the third clan, a
fearful example was made, not by Muhammad, but by an arbitrator
appointed by themselves. When the Quraish and their allies were
besieging Medina, and well-nigh stormed the defences, this Jewish
tribe entered into negotiations with the enemy, which were only
circumvented by the diplomacy of the Prophet. When the besiegers
had retired, Muhammad naturally demanded an explanation of the
Jews. They resisted in their dogged way and were themselves
besieged and compelled to surrender at discretion. Muhammad,
however, consented to the appointing of a chief of a tribe allied
to the Jews as the judge who should pronounce sentence upon them.
The man, in question, was a fierce soldier, who had been wounded
in the attack on the Jews, and, indeed, died from his wound the
same day. This chief gave sentence that the men, in number some
600, should be killed, and the women and children enslaved; and
the sentence was carried out. It was a harsh, bloody sentence,
worthy of the Episcopal generals of the army against the Albigenses or of the deeds of the Augustan age of Puritanism; but
it must be remembered that the crime of these men was high treason
against the State, during time of siege; and those who have read
how Wellington’s march could be traced by the bodies of deserters
and pillagers hanging from the trees, need not be surprised at the
summary execution of a traitorous clan.”
2.
Submission of Najran and the terms of peace:
In the sixth year of the Hegirah, Muhammad (PBUH) granted to the
Christians of Najran a charter which is a monument of enlightened
tolerance. Relevant portion of this reads:
“ To (the
Christians of) Najran and the neighbouring territories, the
security of Allah and the Pledge of His Prophet are extended for
their lives, their religion and their property…..to those present
as well as the absent ones and others besides: there shall be no
interference with (the
practice of) their faith or their
observances, nor any change in their rights or privileges; no
bishop shall be removed from his bishopric, nor any monk from his
priesthood, and they shall continue to enjoy everything great and
small as heretofore; no image or cross shall be destroyed; they
shall not be oppressed or suppressed; they shall not practice
their rights of blood-vengeance as in the Days of Ignorance; no
tithes shall be levied on them nor shall they be required to
furnish provisions for the troops, nor shall troops be quartered
on them.”
3.
Conquest of Makkah and Prophet’s treatment of his
old enemies.
In the year 8, A.H. (630 A.D.) the Prophet marched with ten
thousand men against the Quraish who had broken the truce of
Hudaibiyah, and entered Makkah almost unopposed. “Thus Muhammad
entered the city which had so cruelly ill-treated him. It lay now
completely at his mercy. The chiefs of Quraish had committed so
many crimes against him and his companions for thirteen years in
Makkah and then waged wars against them for eight years when they
sought refuge in Madinah. But in the hour of triumph every evil
suffered was forgotten, every injury inflicted was forgiven and a
general amnesty was declared; “ He who takes refuge in the house
of Abu Sufyan is safe: whosoever closes the door of his house, the
inmates thereof shall be in safety, and he who enters Kaabah is
safe.”
Ikrimah, son of Abu Jahl and Prophet’s longtime enemy was
forgiven. Wahshi, the murderer of Prophet’s uncle Hamzah and Hind,
wife of Abu Sufyan who had chewed liver of Hamzah in the battle of
Uhud, were extended clemency. Habbar who had attacked Prophet’s
daughter Zainab with a spear on her way from Makkah to Madinah
when she was pregnant and almost killed her was pardoned. Abu
Sufyan who had been leading the forces of Quraish in attacks
against Madinah and was the bitterest enemy of the Prophet and of
Islam was not only forgiven but his house was declared a place of
safety for those who entered into it. Thus every enemy was
forgiven. Out of the whole population of Makkah only four persons
who were guilty of crimes like murder and apostasy and whom
justice condemned were executed. They were Abdullah bin Khatal,
Migyas bin Hubaba, Huwayrith and one singing girl.
It is said when the
Quraish came before him, the Prophet asked: “O Quraish what do you
think, of the treatment which I am going to accord you?” They
replied: “ O noble brother and son of a noble
brother! We
expect nothing but good from you.” Upon this the Prophet said: I
speak to you in the same words as Joseph spoke unto his brothers:
This day, there is no reproach against you; go your way, you are
free.”
Can history offer
such an instance of a peaceful conquest of city which had been for
years hub of tyranny and oppression against the conquerors and had
left no stone unturned in harming the conquerors in
person and
their faith? According to Syed Ameer Ali, most truly has it been
said that through all the annals of conquest, there has been no
triumphant entry like unto this one.” Historian Lane-Poole writes:
“Facts are hard things; and it is a fact that the day of
Muhammad’s greatest triumph over his enemies was also the day of
his grandest victory over himself.”
4.
Conquest of Damascus:
During reign of Abu Bakr, the first caliph of Islam who succeeded
the Prophet, Damascus was conquered by the famous general of Islam
Khalid bin Walid who issued the following terms of peace to the
inhabitants:
“ In the name of
Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. This is what Khalid bin
Walid would grant to the inhabitants of Damascus if he enters
therein; he promises to give them security for their lives,
property and
churches. Their city-walls shall not be demolished, neither shall
any Muslim be quartered in their houses. Thereunto we give to them
the Pact of Allah and the protection of His Prophet, the caliphs
and believers. So long as they pay the poll-tax, nothing but good
shall befall them.”
–––(Baladhuri,
Tr. Hitti)
5.
Surrender of Jerusalem:
Following is the text of the treaty whereby Jerusalem surrendered
to the Muslims during the caliphate of Umar (638. A.D.):
This is the charter
which the servant of God, the commander of the faithful, grants to
the people of Aelia. He gives them the assurance of the
preservation of their lives and properties, their churches and
crosses. Your churches will not be transformed into dwellings nor
destroyed nor will anyone confiscate any thing belonging to them,
nor the crosses or belongings of the inhabitants. There will be no
constraint in the matter of religion, nor the least annoyance. The
Jews will inhabit Aelia conjointly with the Christians, and those
who live there will be required to pay the poll-tax, like the
inhabitants of other towns. Greeks and robbers are to leave the
town, but will have a safe conduct until they reach a place of
security. Still, those who prefer
to remain may do so on condition
of paying the same poll-tax as the rest. If any of the people of Aelia desire to leave with the Greeks, taking their goods, but
abandoning their chapels and crosses, they will be granted
personal safety, until they arrive at a secure place. The
strangers in the town may remain on the same condition of paying
the tax, or, if they wish, they may also leave with Greeks, and
return to their land. …… All that this treaty contains is placed
under the alliance and protection of God and of His Apostle” (Sir
William Muir: The caliphate, Its Rise,
Decline and Fall.)
6.
Conquest of other Lands:
The Muslims were held as deliverers and liberators by the general
masses when they conquered Persia, Africa and Spain. Regarding
this, the famous Muslims scholar Syed Ameer Ali writes:
“Consequently,
wherever the Muslim missionary-soldier made his appearance, he was
hailed by the down-trodden masses and the persecuted heretics as
the harbinger of freedom and emancipation from a galling bondage.
Islam brought to them practical equality in the eye of the law,
and fixity of taxation. The battle of Kadesia, which threw Persia
into the hands of the Muslims, was the signal of deliverance to
the bulk of the Persians, as the battle of Yermuk and Ajnadin were
to the Syrians, the Greeks, and the Egyptians. The Jews, whom the
Zoroastrians had massacred from time to time, the Christians, whom
they hunted from place to place, breathed freely under the
authority of the Prophet, the watchword of whose faith was the
brotherhood of
man. The people everywhere received the Muslims as their
liberators. Wherever any resistance was offered, it was by the
priesthood and the aristocracy.”
“The conquest of
Africa and Spain was attended with the same result. The Arians,
the Pelagians, and other heretics, hitherto, the victims of
orthodox fury and hatred, ––– the people at large, who had been
terribly oppressed by a lawless soldiery and a still more lawless
priesthood, –– found peace and security under Islam. By an irony
of fate, which almost
induces a belief in the Nemesis of the ancients, the Jews, whose
animosity towards the Prophet very nearly wrought the destruction
of the Islamic commonwealth, found in the Muslims their best
protectors. “Insulted, plundered, hated and despised by all
Christian nations,” they found that refuge in Islam, that
protection from inhumanity, which was ruthlessly denied to them in
Christendom.”
“Immediately on
their arrival on the soil of Spain, the Saracens published an
edict assuring to the subject races, without any difference of
race or creed, the most ample liberty, Suevi, Goth, Vandal, Roman,
and Jew were all placed on an equal footing with the Muslim. They
guaranteed to both Christian and Jew the full exercise of their
religions, the free use of their places of worship, and perfect
security of person and property. They even allowed them to be
governed, within prescribed limits, by their own laws, to fill all
civil offices and serve in the army. Their women were invited
to
intermarry with the conquerors. Does not the conduct of the Arabs
in Spain offer as astonishing contrast to that of many European
nations, even in modern times, in their treatment of conquered
nationalities?”
“Under the Mogul
Emperors of Delhi, Hindus commanded armies, administered provinces
and sat in the councils of the sovereign. Even at the present time
can it be said that in no European empire, ruling over mixed
nationalities and faiths, is any distinction made of creed, colour
or race?”
[Back
to the start of this chapter]
III- Rights of the Non-Muslims
Having gone through
the relevant verses of the Holy Qur’an and Ahadith of Muhammad (PBUH)
and having surveyed some historical events and treaties, we shall
now discuss the rights
granted by Islam to the non-Muslim subjects
of the Islamic state.
The jurists of
Islam have divided the non-Muslim citizens of an Islamic state
broadly into two categories: those who enter into a treaty or a
specific agreement with the Islamic state in a war or without a
war and those who are defeated in the battlefield and thus
surrender to the Islamic forces. The former are treated in
accordance with the terms of the treaty and such treaties are to
be complied with strictly at all costs, while the latter are also
given kind treatment and all the due rights if they lay down their
arms, accept the sovereignty of the Islamic state and agree to pay Jizyah tax. However, for practical purpose, there is no difference
between these categories of non-Muslim citizens as all such people
have been guaranteed all human rights by the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
These rights are sacred and are inviolable and Islamic state
cannot curtail or restrict these rights on any pretext or excuse.
As submitted
earlier the non-Muslims living in the Islamic state are called
Zimmis and the understanding or contract governing relationship
between the Islamic state and such non-Muslims is called
Aqd-ul-Zimmah. The Zimmis mean protected people and they are so
called because the Islamic state becomes duty-bound to protect
their lives, honour and properties and also their religions
freedom the very moment they submit to Islamic rule and start
paying Jizyah.
We would now
briefly lay down the rights
which have been conferred by Islam on its non-Muslim subject in
the following paragraphs:
1.
In an Islamic state, all the fundamental rights of
Zimmis including right to life, property and honour are guaranteed
by Islam. The blood of a Zimmi is considered as much sacrosanct
and sacred as that of a Muslim. In the days of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH),
a Muslim killed a Zimmi. When the case was brought before the
Prophet (PBUH), he ordered the execution of the murderer and
remarked: “I am responsible for obtaining redress for the weak”.
During the reign of Ali, a Muslim was accused of murdering a Zimmi.
When the charge was proved, Ali issued order for the execution of
the accused. It was only when the brother of the deceased received
blood-money and pardoned the murderer that the caliph agreed to
release him. Ali said at that time: “Whoever is our Zimmi, his
blood is as sacred as our blood and his property is as inviolable
as our own property”. At another occasion, Ali declared: “They
have accepted the position of Zimmis on the explicit understanding
that their properties and their lives will remain sacred like
those of ours (i.e. of the Muslims)”.
2.
Islam guarantees religious freedom to everyone. In
an Islamic state, every citizen, may he or she be a Muslim or a
non-Muslim, is at liberty to profess and practice his own
religion. Thus the non-Muslim minorities enjoy complete religious
freedom in an Islamic state as the state does not interfere in
their religious matters and shows full tolerance to those who
profess and practice religions other than Islam.
Everybody is free
to follow and practice his religion on the basis of the Qur’anic
principle: “Unto you your religion
and unto me my religion.” The
Prophet of Islam acted upon this principle literally and gave
religious freedom to all of his non-Muslim subjects. We have
already glanced through the relevant portions of Charter of Madinah and the letter written by the Prophet (PBUH) to Christians
of Najran and have seen that the Jews of Madinah and the
Christians under the Islamic state enjoyed full religious freedom
and complete protection.
The following
extract from Encyclopedia of Seerah is reproduced to show the
benevolent attitude of the early
Islamic
governments towards the non-Muslims regarding their religious
practices and places of worship. The Encyclopedia says:
“It is a notable
fact, with few parallels even in modern history, that after the
conquest of Egypt, the Caliph
Umar scrupulously preserved intact
the property dedicated to the Christian churches and continued the
allowances made by the former governments for the support of the
priests.” (Ameer Ali, the Spirit of Islam, p. 274). The
best testimony of the freedom of faith enjoyed by the Christians
and members of other religions in the days of the early Muslims is
furnished by the Christians themselves. In the reign of ‘Uthman
(the third Caliph), the Christian patriarch of Merv addressed the
Bishop of fars, named Simeon, in the following terms, “The Arabs,
who have been given by God the Kingdom (of the earth), do not
attack the Christian faith: on the contrary, they help us in our
religion; they respect our God and our saints, and bestow gifts on
our churches and monasteries.
Al-Qur’an, the
revealed both of Islam, and Muhammad (PBUH), the Prophet of Islam,
have strictly prohibited the forced conversion of non-Muslims to
Islam. Hence no non-Muslim is forced to embrace Islam against his
free will. History of Islam dispels the wide-spread fallacy that
the Muslim conquerors place before the non-Muslims only option of
conversion or the sword.
3.
The non-Muslim subjects of the Islamic state fully
enjoy judicial and social autonomy. Their judicial autonomy is
guaranteed by verses 43 and 47 of Surah 5 of the Holy Qur’an which
have been reproduced already in section I of this chapter. Thus
the non-Muslims are at liberty to decide their mutual disputes in
accordance with their personal law. As far as social autonomy is
concerned, they are free to protect their language, culture,
customs, religious practices, social rituals, mode of dress, etc.
in which neither the Islamic government nor the Muslim community
can interfere.
4.
Disabled or poor Zimmis who have been reduced to
begging or the Zimmis who have been overtaken by a calamity are
eligible for support from the Bait-ul-Mal of the Islamic state as
are the poor and disabled among the Muslims. This rule was
established as early as the times of Abu Bakr, the first caliph of
Islam. During his reign, when the famous Muslim general Khalid bin
Walid conquered Hira, he specially wrote in the treaty of peace
the following terms:-
“I have stipulated
that if any one of them becomes unfit to work on account of old
age or some other cause, or if anyone who was formerly rich
becomes so poor that his coreligionists have to support him by
giving him alms, such persons will be exempt from
paying the
Jizyah and they, together with their dependents, will be
helped from the Islamic Treasury (Bait-ul-Mal).”
This rule was
further established during the reign of Caliph Umar. He once saw
an old Zimmi begging. On enquiry, the Zimmi told the caliph that
he was begging for the payment of Jizyah. The
caliph at once
exempted him from the payment of Jizyah, sanctioned a pension for
him and told his treasury officer thus:
“By God, it is
undoubtedly not
just that we derive benefit from a person in the prime of his
youth but leave him to beg in the streets when he is stricken with
old age.”
5.
The non-Muslims living in the Islamic state
normally enjoy all the socio-economic and political rights which
are available to the Muslim citizens. They can adopt any business
or profession to earn their livelihood provided such business or
profession is not unlawful, immoral or against the explicit
injunctions of Islam like sale of wine or pork to Muslims,
business involving usury with a Muslim or prostitution, etc. They
have right to participate in social activities, national
festivals, social gatherings. They are entitled to government jobs
except for few posts like head of state, head of government, head
of judiciary, head of the armed forces, head of parliament and
some other key-offices. The Prophet of Islam himself appointed Amr
bin Umaiyah-ad-Damri a non-Muslim as an ambassador to Abyssinia
for interceding with the Negus in favour of the Muslim refugees.
Umar, the second caliph, appointed a Greek Christian as the head
of his accounts department to put in order the accounts of state
revenues.
Islam enjoins
upon the Muslims to treat the non-Muslims very kindly and justly.
The Qur’an encourages social relations between the Muslims and
non-Muslim people of the Book (Ahle Kitab). The food of Muslims is
lawful for the Jews and Christians and that of the Jews and
Christians is lawful for the Muslims. The women of the Christians
and Jews have been allowed to marry the Muslims without changing
their religion, a privilege devoid to other non-Muslims whose
women can marry the Muslims after conversion to Islam.
[Back
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