Islamic Treatment of the People of the Book
Sources:
An article on the Prophet Muhammad's Charter to the Monks of the Saint Catherine Monastery in Sinai
An excerpt from Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall's 5th Madras Lecture on Islam (1927)
An article from the San Francisco Chronicle website, touching on the Holy Fire & the Nuseibeh family
In 628 CE,
Prophet Muhammad granted a Charter of Privileges to the monks of St. Catherine
Monastery in Mount Sinai. It consisted of several clauses covering all aspects
of human rights including such topics as the protection of Christians, freedom
of worship and movement, freedom to appoint their own judges and to own and
maintain their property, exemption from military service, and the right to
protection in war.
Here follows an English translation of that document, made by
Dr. A. Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq (©
1990, 1997, All Rights Reserved):
This is a message from Muhammad ibn
Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are
with them.
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because
Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that
displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them.
Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from
their monasteries.
No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry
anything from it to the Muslims' houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His
Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that
they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight.
The Muslims are to fight for them.
If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without
her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.
Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from
repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation [Muslims] is to disobey the covenant till the Last
Day [Doomsday].
This charter of privileges has been honoured and assiduously applied by Muslims
throughout the centuries in all lands they ruled.
The People of the Book, as the Qur'an calls them,
had received the revelation of some former Prophet. The Jews, the Christians and
the Zoroastrians were People of the Book. To these, the Prophet's attitude was
one of kindness.
The Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, which also contains a mosque within its
walls, seems to have the key to bringing Islam and Christianity together. The
fathers of the Monastery visited the Prophet Muhammad in Medina in 625 CE and
requested for protection. Apparently, the request was favourably accepted and
the so called "Ahitname" (which is a latinised version of the noun "Ahad-nama",
or "immunity covenant") was sent to them by the Prophet Muhammad himself in 628
CE. The revolutionary aspect of that document is that it is 1,500 years old,
when there were no laws, no democracy, and no human rights. It is an excellent
charter for protection of Christians and minorities living under Islamic rule
and would help the world understand this religion of justice.
And let us not forget that for over 1,300 years (most of its history), the
Keeper of the Keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been from the Muslim
Nuseibeh family. The Holy Sepulchre is believed to be the place of Christ's
resurrection (plus crucifixion and death according to the Christians). The
miracle of the Holy Fire which occurs there to this day is mentioned in al-Biruni's
Chronology of Ancient Nations, offered by
Antioch Gate.
Nuseibeh's family has helped keep the peace between them since Caliph Umar ibn
al-Khattab first conquered Jerusalem for the Muslims in 638 CE. The only gap was
during 88 years of Crusader rule in the 12th century. According to family
history, when
Salah al-Din recaptured Jerusalem in 1191
CE, he promised English King Richard the Lion Heart he would invite the Nuseibeh
family to resume their role as custodians. Since that time, the Judeh family,
also Muslims, have been given the key for safekeeping overnight.
In Spain under the Umayyads and in Baghdad under the Abbasid Caliphs, Christians
and Jews, equally with Muslims, were admitted to the schools and universities -
not only that, but were boarded and lodged in hostels at the cost of the state.
The free Muslim world was later a refuge for all those who fled from persecution
by the Spanish Inquisition.
The Charter which the Prophet granted to the Christian monks of Sinai still
exists. It breathes not only goodwill but actual love. He gave to the Jews of
Medina, so long as they were faithful to him, precisely the same treatment as to
the Muslims. He never was aggressive against any man or class of men; he never
penalised any man, or made war on any people, on the ground of belief but only
on the ground of conduct. The story of the Prophet's reception of Christian and
Zoroastrian visitors is on record. There is not a trace of religious intolerance
in all this. However, the Prophet's envoys were insulted cruelly, and even
slain. One cannot help wondering what reception the same embassies would get
from the rulers of mankind today, who have thrown off the trammels of
priestcraft, and harbour some idea of human brotherhood.