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Islamic Tolerance with Jews and Christians
With Jews:
In the first Islamic state, in Medina, headed by Muhammad (peace be upon him), the constitution stipulated pluralism, justice and equality among all citizens regardless of their religion. Actually, Islam combined all the tribes making them integral units within the Islamic structure. It made all citizens, regardless of their religion, a unique structure seeking the prosperity of their state. The Islamic
dictionary does not include the word "Minority" as Islam considers the diversity of religions, tribes, nations, colors, races, tongues, methods, traditions and customs as the Way of Allah that will never
change.
The constitution of the first Islamic state stipulated:
* Jews will adhere to their religion and the Muslims to theirs.
* The Jews who live under the Islamic state will have assistance and advocacy and they will not be dealt with unjustly.
* Jews will share the expenses along with Muslims as long as they fight jointly against any aggressors. Muslims have their expenses and Jews have theirs.
* Muslims and Jews should advise each other and cooperate to achieve the common good. Furthermore, they should not help each other in sin and transgression.
* Whoever earns sin; he earns it only against himself.
Thus, this constitution of the first Islamic state achieved unique and unprecedented equality, justice and tolerance. In spite of the political freedom and the atmosphere of democracy that they claim, the West has failed to achieve what Islam achieved fourteen centuries ago.
With Christians
Moreover, what increases the greatness of the Islamic achievements concerning tolerance, equality and justice is that Islam does not ignore other religions as secular countries have done. In addition, this equality and justice do not disregard the Islamic reference as the secularists tended to do. The Islamic constitution of al-Madinah asserted this Islamic reference: "When there are differences, disputes or struggles among the people of al-Madinah about anything, the matter will be referred for a decision to Allah and to His Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)."
When the Islamic state extended to include the Christians of Najran, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) sent them a letter in which he assured them of pluralism, freedom, Islamic tolerance, equality and justice.
The Pact of Najran included the following:
* Full protection is accorded from Allah and His Prophet (peace be upon him) to the Christian inhabitants of Najran regarding their life, land, nationhood, property and wealth, even to those who are residing as their dependants in the vicinity of Najran and to those living outside the country, their priests, monks, churches, and
everything, whether great or small.
* No bishop or monk will be removed from his office. The intention being that no change in any form of every one will be made (the status quo shall be maintained).
* They will neither be subjected to military service nor be treated harshly.
* They will not be dealt with unjustly.
* I (prophet Muhammad) shall protect them and safeguard their religion, churches, places of worship, the houses of their monks, their belongings and their tourist places wherever they are, in the same way as I protect my Islamic nation and myself.
* None of their buildings will be adjacent to the Muslim's Mosques or houses.
* None of them will pay Kharaj (1) or Jizyah (2) except those who have an inheritance of land that has a specific tax to be paid to the Sultan. Such being the case, they shall be required to pay as their counterparts without injustice, unfairness or excess. Muslims should not put on them a burden greater than they have strength to bear concerning cultivation.
* None of them should be compelled to fight alongside Muslims against their enemies as they were promised to be protected by the Muslims and not vice versa. Furthermore, Muslims shall protect
them wherever they are.
* None of them should be compelled to provide Muslims during battles with soldiers, money, weapons or horses. If some of them do so voluntarily, they should be thanked and rewarded.
* None of them should be compelled to embrace Islam and Muslims should not argue with them unless it is in a way that is better; with good words and manners. Muslims should lower to them the wing of mercy and keep them from harm wherever they are.
* None of them should be compelled concerning marriage; they should not be compelled to marry their daughters to Muslims. They should not be blamed if they refuse the suitor, as it is their absolute right to reject or to accept voluntarily.
* If a Muslim gets married to a Christian woman, he should be content with her Christianity and should not prevent her from performing her religious rituals. If he prevents and compels her to do something opposing her religion, then he will be of those who disobey Allah and His Prophet and he will be amongst the liars.
* If they need assistance concerning reconstruction of their churches, hermitages or any thing else regarding their interests, the Muslims should help and assist them without seeking compensation in order to support the interests of their religion as a favor from Allah and His Prophet (peace be upon him).
* Muslims should keep my promise, as I promised them to protect and safeguard all their belongings. Furthermore, they have the same rights and the same duties as Muslims.
Actually, the people of current times, who do not know the reality of Islam, are overwhelmingly amazed because of the Islamic generosity, equality, justice and tolerance towards those of other religions fourteen centuries ago. Undoubtedly, their amazement will increase when they come to know that Islam does not ask others to return this generosity and tolerance.
1. A tax or tribute on land. This was originally applied to a land tribute from non-Muslim tribes.
2. Head-tax imposed by Islam on the people of the Scripture when they are under Muslim rule.
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Islam allowed others to contribute to the new Islamic culture Moreover, Islam allowed others to contribute to the new Islamic culture in which Islam revived the cultural inheritance of ancient nations, which had been eliminated by the aggressive conquerors, by translating its sciences and arts. The new Islamic culture revived the sciences, arts, and philosophies of the schools of Alexandria, Antakya and many others in order to save the human heritage from loss and submersion. Thus, the people of those countries regarded Islamic culture as a new phase of their own national culture. Therefore, they became an integral part of the Islamic national and cultural being in spite of their different religion. This religious diversity remained a sacred right as ,the religion belongs only to Almighty Allah and no one has the right to compel others to embrace any religion.' |
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Islamic Tolerance in the Islamic Conquests Actually, all the Islamic conquests were against the major aggressive powers (Romans and Persians) that had colonized the East for many centuries. Muslim armies did not fight the non-Muslim people of the countries that they conquered. Rather, people of these countries supported these Muslim armies materially and morally and, sometimes, they fought with Muslims against Persians and Romans who were of their same religion as the people of Iraq and the Christians of Egypt and Ash-Sham.
Not only did the Muslim armies liberate those countries, but also liberated their people from continual religious persecution. For the first time, they were given the right to practice their religious rituals freely. They became an integral part within the Islamic state having the same rights and the same duties as Muslims. Afterwards, some of them embraced Islam without compulsion while others adhered to their religion under the wing of the unprecedented tolerance of Islam.
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Islam allowed others to govern the Islamic countries In addition, Islam allowed others to govern the divans and councils of the state. Adam Temz (1869-1917), the prominent German orientalist said,
"The Christians were governing the Islamic countries." Thomas Arnold (1864-1930), a fanatical English orientalist, confessed Islamic tolerance saying, "It is true to say that, under the Islamic rule, non-Muslims enjoyed a degree of tolerance unprecedented in Europe up till modem times. For sure, the existence of Christian sects in Muslim countries proves that the persecutions they had suffered from time to time by some fanatics and extremists were more a result of domestic circumstances than of intolerance and fanaticism."
ISLAMIC TOLERANCE IN AL-ANDALUS (Former: SPAIN)
A COMPARATIVE VIEW
The fine quality of any thing may be shown by its opposite and the opposite may show the superiority of that thing, thus it is appropriate to mention some examples to set forth a fair comparison.
Islam let non-Muslims adhere to their religion and gave them permission to practice their religious rituals freely.
Almighty Allah says,
There is no compulsion in religion. (Al-Baqarah: 256)
And,
And say, 'The truth is from your Lord.' Then whosoever wills, let him believe, and whosoever wills, let him disbelieve. (Al-Kahf: 29)
And,
To each among you. We have prescribed a law and a clear way. If Allah willed. He would have made you one nation. (Al-Ma'idah: 48)
And,
To you be your religion, and to me my religion (Islamic Monotheism). (Al-Kafirun: 6)
These principles and basics were embodied in the Prophet's pacts with Jews and Christians. While, on the contrary, the European Church assassinated religious freedom through the unjust courts that put torture, burning, imprisonment, drowning and execution at the stake into force for more than three centuries. Furthermore, the bishops, kings and princes compelled people to embrace Christianity in spite of the fact that true Christianity orders its followers to love the enemies and to bless the cursers.
Thomas Arnold asserted that Charlemagne (742-814) compelled the Saxons to embrace Christianity.
The tolerance of the Islamic state, from the first state of al-Madinah up until now, made it a 'forum' in which all religions, doctrines, languages, nationalities, races and colors have the same rights. On the contrary, the West was unable to deal with pluralism, even Christian pluralism, i.e. doctrinal variety.
Actually, the West did not know pluralism save at the time of secularism that excluded religious considerations from civil and worldly affairs. Even under secularism and the false allegations of freedom and human rights, the West is still fed up with Islam. It considers the existence of Islam in, Western communities as an invasion against Europe.
To know more about Islam, you can contact the Publishers of this book "Religious Tolerance" in the following link:
AL-FALAH For Publishing and distribution.
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Christianizing Muslims
The Christian West has sought to Christianize Muslims inside their own abodes under the auspices of Western secularism.
The protocols of the priests of Christianization issued a statement during the conference of Colorado in May 1978 that stated, "Islam is the only religion whose original sources contradict the principles of Christianity. Moreover, the Islamic system is the most harmonious religious system concerning social and political affairs. We need hundreds of centers to understand Islam and to penetrate it cunningly. Thus, Christianizing Muslims is the first of all our priorities."
During this conference, they planned to penetrate the Islamic culture and to Christianize Muslims depending on the national churches, arts, literature, foreign civil employment, women and Muslim foreign students in the western communities. Moreover, they decided to contrive disasters that might disturb the balance of Muslims and thus facilitate their conversion to Christianity.
They said, "In order to compel Muslims to convert to Christianity, crises and problems that may disturb their balance should find their way to their communities. These crises may be natural such as poverty, diseases, disasters and wars or morals such as racial discrimination and low social status. Without these prearranged disasters, there will not be wide conversion to Christianity. Giving a helping hand to the needy among Muslims has become a very important factor concerning the process of Christianization.
One of the major facts of our age is that the dire necessity of Muslim communities has changed the hostile stances of their governments and turned them to be more lenient towards the process of Christianization and Christians themselves."
Thus, the politically secular West sought hard to compel Muslims to accept Western secularism that is based mainly on the Christian principle of rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's and to accept Western modernity that ruptures all relations with
God by humanizing religion. The advocates of this Western modernity defined it by saying, "It is a state of replacing the Divine religion by the natural (human) one. It is the state of licensing the human mind as a judge and replacing Divine dominance over the universe by human dominance over nature."
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CONCLUSION
It has become clear that the roots of tolerance in human history coincided with the revelation of Islam. The Islamic state and culture put this unprecedented norm into effect throughout its history. Muslims have the right to boast of such unprecedented and unique tolerance that is not confined to those who reciprocate Islam but the same recognition and acceptance also extends to comprehend those who deny, reject and disbelieve in Islam.
Moreover, Islam makes this recognition of the others and enabling them to exercise their religious rituals, as an obligation and a basic condition of absolute belief in the Islamic creed and one of the main duties of the Islamic state.
Furthermore, Islam makes others an integral part of the national and cultural being regardless of their various religions. It considers nations, tribes and cultures as a legal diversity under the wing of the Islamic state and humanity, as Almighty Allah wants this diversity and pluralism to continue until the Day of Judgment.
As the fine quality of any thing may be shown by its opposite and the opposite may show the superiority of that thing, thus Islamic tolerance manifests itself as a unique norm when compared to Western tyranny and persecution.
Finally, the wise and the rational minds of the West should deliberately consider this unique tolerance and respond to its fair instructions instead of talking about the Crusades and the clash of cultures.
All the praises and thanks are due to Allah for all His Blessings.
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