The Light
November 2014
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Worldwide Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam
2014
The only Islamic organisation upholding the inality of prophethood
Webcasting on the world’s first real-time Islamic service at www.virtualmosque.co.uk ghans, consensus of opinion over the historical fact that Qais, their great progenitor, was from among the Children of Israel. It has been accepted unanimously by the three nations, the Contents: Page Jews, the Christians and the Muslims, that the The Call of the Messiah 1 Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar at about 700 years before the birth of Jesus, had taken Muhammad (s) III 4 the Children of Israel prisoners, and sent them By Prof K. S. Ramakrishna Rao to Babylon in captivity. After this event, out of the twelve tribes of Israel, only two tribes of Jews in early Islam 6 Judah and Benjamin returned to their country, Bu Z A Rehman whereas the remaining ten continued in their Eastern captivity; and since the Jews, up to this time, have not been able to tell the whereabouts of those tribes, nor have they been in touch with them, it is presumable that the tribes might have at last become Muslims. Furthermore, when we, leaving this story as it is, The Call of the Messiah cast a glance on their historical legends that they had been, from ancient times, hearing by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, from their ancestors that they were in reality of the Promised Messiah and Mahdi the Jewish descent as stated in detail in the (Ayyam us Sulah, continued from last book Makhzan Afghani, there remains no doubt month, Footnote to text.) whatsoever as to the fact that these people have come down from the same ten tribes who All the Afghans, it cannot be denied,are said to have been lost in the Eastern counYusafzye, Daooazye, Lodh’i Sarwani, Aurakzye, tries, and that the Kashmiris, too, who resemSaddozye, Barakzye ble the Afghans so are Bani Israel closely in their man(Children of Israel), ner and make, beand Qais is their greet long to the same progenitor. There is stock. Bernier, on also a very wellthe authority of sevknown tradition told eral English writers, by the Afghans that has also proved in from the mother’s respect of the Kashside their ancestry miris that their angoes back to Sarah cestry goes back to daughter of Khalid Israel. And in dealing bin Waleed; that is to with and discussing say, Qais, their great such a thing which a progenitor, had marnation has been ried Sarah, and in this The Berlin Mosque of the Ahmadiyya acknowledging, gensense, therefore, the Movement - 90 years of propagation of Islam. eration after generaAfghans are also the tion, about its geneChildren of Khalid alogy and descent it is absolutely improper that bin Waleed. Anyhow, there is among the AfEditors: Shahid Aziz Mustaq Ali
ن ْحالرَّ ْ ی م حم ْ ْس م ْ ٰ ِباہللْالرَّ م
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we should, taking our beliefs based upon some basis of some conjectures, should stand up to senseless conjectures, set aside and reject its exclude him from the nation in which he beacknowledged and accepted facts; otherwise no lieves himself to be included, and admits not people in the world, I think, will be able to esthat he belongs to that nation, and rejects all tablish their accurate and true nationality. That those arguments and proofs, accumulated and a whole nation, in spite of hundreds of thouadduced by the statements of generation after sands of its people, has unanimously agreed generation, and has no regard for the consensus upon one point, should be regarded as an arguof opinion of the huge majority, how much ment of the irst order when all the Afghans wicked and mischievous such a person would living in India, Kabul, Qandhar and other fronseem to be? So, according to the wise saying, all tier regions, call themselves Israel, it will be things whatsoever ye would that men should sheer foolishness to throw and deny unnecesnot do to you, do ye not even so to them, it sarily their ancient, accepted truths. In the scruseems also to be improper that an inquiry be tiny of nations, it should be regarded as a suf iinstituted unnecessarily into the kind of nationcient and sound proof that the well-known ality of others which has been admitted and events current among a nation regarding its linaccepted through a huge national consensus and eage and descent, are accepted by its people. assent. What right have we and what argument And in such matters there can be is there in our hands to set no bigger proof than that a naaside and quash by a mere word tion, notwithstanding its huge facts agreed upon and acknowlbrotherhood and wide-spread edged by the whole nation? inter-marriages, should agree When a thing has been decided and concur on one statement; to be correct through repeated and if this argument be not reagreement, there remains no garded as worthy of con idence room for conjecture or preand reliable, then, in this age, all sumption. It should also be rethe nations of Muslims, for exmembered that the people of ample, Sayyad, Qureshi, Mughal some nations make hyperbolical etc. will become proof-less and and senseless statements with mere verbal claims. But it will be regard to their nationalities. But a great mistake on our part if we investigators or research scholshould brush aside and reject all ars throw not away the real facts those clear and successively reon account of these extravagant peated facts which a nation has statements, but shape their in its possession as an historical course and act up to. For inrecord, regarding the accurate stance, it is also written in the The Berlin Mosque identity of its nationality. It may biography of the Buddha that he The First Mosque on the however, be possible that in the was born through his mother's European mainland. description of its descent and mouth. But when we sit down to ancestry, a nation may draw a write the history of Buddha, we should not, in long bow and indulge in exaggeration. But we view of this fantastic statement about his birth, should not, on our part, throw the real thing write to deny the real existence of Buddha. The overboard because of these exaggerated acart of history writing is indeed a very delicate counts or other incoherent statements. The thing. In the execution of this work, only he can proper course will be that all those accretions tread upon the right road of rectitude and upwhich seem to be useless and redundant indeed, rightness who keeps away and abstains from be expunged and erased, and the real essence of indulging in exaggeration as well as underthe matter, agreed upon by the nation with conestimation. And this objection, too, is incorrect sensus, be accepted. Every investigator or reand wrong that if the Afghans had been of the search scholar, in this way, will have to admit Hebrew origin, how is it that there are no Hethat the Afghans are, as a matter of fact, Bani brew terms in their names, and that the geneaIsrael (Children of Israel). Every one, keeping logical tree produced by them, disagrees with himself as well as his nation in view, should some passages of the Torah? All these things ponder over and think that if a person on the are nothing but whims which cannot rub off and
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efface national history and succession. Just see, our Holy Prophet (peace and the blessings of God be upon him) accepted not as correct the genealogical tree of the Quraish which they carry back to reach Ishmael, and excepting a few generations, rejected the rest of it as the liars’ falsehood. But it follows not from this that the Quraish are not the Children of Ishmael. Furthermore, when the Quraish who were so avaricious and tenacious in the matter of genealogy could not remember their lineage in accurate detail, it should make no difference in the real object of the Afghans, addicted generally to a life of indifference and want of earnestness, should have committed any mistake in the statement of their genealogy in detail, or even intermixed it with some falsehood. And the Torah, too has not been preserved in its pristine purity that it may claim the authority of a decisive word. We have now come to know that the copies of the Torah which the Jews have differ greatly from those with the Christians. In short, this criticism and picking holes is not fair; and it is also incorrect that the Afghan names are not of the Hebrew form or fashion. Are not these names - Yusaf zye, Daood zye, Suleman zye, Hebrew names, or are they something else? Of course, when these people migrated into other countries, their dialect and diction was also dyed in the colour of those countries. Just see, in our country the Sadaat (descendants of the Holy Prophet) have such names as Chanan Shah, Makhan Shah, Natthoo Shah, Mattoc Shah; then will they not be called Sayyads? Are these Arabic names? In brief, all this carping and criticism is senseless and shameful. How can we discountenance and deny the successively repeated professions of whole nation? What better and more convincing way than this for the recognition of reality, is there in our hands then that the nation itself whose identity we wish to ascertain, has agreed upon this point unanimously. Besides this, there are other factors also, pointing clearly to the fact that these people are in reality the descendants of Israel; for example, Mount Solomon (Koh Suleiman) which had been at irst the abode of Afghans, shows clearly that this name has been given to this hill obviously to retain the memory of the ancient Israel relic. There is yet
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another factor that the Khaiber fort, built by the Afghans, is undoubtedly to commemorate the memory of that Khaiber which is in Arabia, and was inhabited by the Jews. The third factor is that the physical features of the Afghans resemble very much those of the Israelites. If some Jews were made to stand in line with the Afghans, I think, the cast of their countenance, their aquiline nose and oval-shaped face will bear so close resemblance that they will declare automatically that all these people belong to the same family. The fourth factor is the Afghans’ dress. Their long shirt and gowns are of the same Israelite fashion and form a mention of which has also been made in the Gospel. The ifth factor is such customs and ceremonies of theirs which are very much like those of the Jews; for instance, some of their tribes recognize no difference between betrothal and marriage, and women meet and mix with their iances without any reservation. The going about of Mary with her iance, Joseph, even before the consummation of marriage, is a strong evidence of this Jewish custom. But in some tribes of the Afghans of the frontier regions, the mixing of women with their betrothed men is unrestricted and free to such an extent that conception sometimes takes place even before marriage, which they turn off in jest, for, like the Jews, these people also look upon and regard betrothal as a kind of marriage in which dowry is also determined and decided at irst. The sixth factor bearing upon the Afghans being the descendants of Israel is their own positive af irmation that Qais (Kish) was their great progenitor; for, a mention of Kish is found in a book of the sacred scriptures of the Jews, entitled I Chronicles, and he was an Israelite. This fact leads us to the conclusion that either there was another Kish (Qais) among the progeny of the irst Kish, who might have embraced Islam, or the one who became Muslim, might have some other name, but he might have been among the children of Kish, and later on, through an error of remembrance, came to be known by the name Kish. Anyhow, the
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utterance of the term Kish from the lips of a nation which was illiterate and utterly ignorant of the Jewish scriptures, leads us to think that they had heard it from their forefathers, that Kish was their great progenitor. The text of I Chronicles reads thus: And Ner begat Kish and Kish begat Saul; and Saul begat Jonathan (9:39).
prising millions of people who have been giving this evidence generation after generation.
The seventh factor relates to their moral peculiarities which are much in evidence : their irascible temper, ickle-mindedness, sel ishness, tendency to kill and slay, roughness of manners, perversity, and other personal passions, murderous intentions, un-mannerliness, blockheadedness and stupidity. All these are the very same qualities which have been said of the Jews in the Torah and other scriptures. And if you should open the Holy Quran, chapter The Cow, and begin to read the qualities, habits, deeds and moral conditions of the Jews, you will feel as if the moral conditions of the Afghans of the frontier regions are being described; and this opinion is so sound and correct and many an English scholar has also endorsed it. Bernier, when he wrote that the Muslim Kashmiris of Kashmir were also Bani Israel in reality, has quoted some British scholars in his support, stating all these people to be of the ten tribes who are said to have been lost in the eastern countries, and of whom it has been discovered in the present age that all of them, as a matter of fact, have got into the fold of Islam.
(Head of the Dept. of Philosophy, Govt. College for Women. University of Mysore, Mandya571401 (Karnatika, India).
Now that so many arguments exist to show decisively that the Afghans are the descendants of lsrael, and that they have been themselves hearing from their forefathers that they are Israelites, and that all these things are well known and famous facts current in their nation, it will be gross injustice if we should as if through an imperious ordinance, refuse to accept these statements of theirs. We should just pause to ponder over and think what argument of denial have we in our hands to adduce against and refute their arguments. It is a legal principle that an old document of more than forty years of age itself becomes the argument of its own correctness and validity. So when the Afghans, like other nations that speak of their descents, af irm that they have descended from Israel, why should we fall out and quarrel, and for what reason should we refuse to accept their assertion? It should be remembered that it is not a statement of one or two persons, but it is an absolute asseveration of the whole nation, com-
Muhammad (s) Part III Prof. K. S. Ramakrishna Rao,
Re-printed from “Islam and Modern age”, Hydrabad, March 1978. (continued from The Light October 2014) The Arabs had a very strong tradition that one who can smite with the spear and can wield the sword would inherit. But Islam came as the defender of the weaker sex and entitled women to share the inheritance of their parents. It gave women, centuries ago right of owning property, yet it was only 12 centuries later , in 1881, that England, supposed to be the cradle of democracy adopted this institution of Islam and the act was called “the married woman act”, but centuries earlier, the Prophet of Islam had proclaimed that “Woman are twin halves of men. The rights of women are sacred. See that women maintained rights granted to them.” Islam is not directly concerned with political and economic systems, but indirectly and in so far as political and economic affairs in luence man’s conduct, it does lay down some very important principles to govern economic life. According to Prof. Massignon, it maintains the balance between exaggerated opposites and has always in view the building of character which is the basis of civilization. This is secured by its law of inheritance, by an organized system of charity known as Zakat, and by regarding as illegal all anti-social practices in the economic ield like monopoly, usury, securing of predetermined unearned income and increments, cornering markets, creating monopolies, creating an arti icial scarcity of any commodity in order to force the prices to rise. Gambling is illegal. Contribution to schools, to places of worship, hospitals, digging of wells, opening of orphanages are highest acts of virtue. Orphanages have sprung for the irst time, it is said, under the teaching of the prophet of Islam. The world owes its orphanages to this prophet born an orphan. “Good all this” says Carlyle about Mohammad. “The natural voice of humanity, of pity and equity,
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dwelling in the heart of this wild son of nature, speaks.” A historian once said a great man should be judged by three tests: Was he found to be of true metel by his contemporaries ? Was he great enough to raise above the standards of his age ? Did he leave anything as permanent legacy to the world at large ? This list may be further extended but all these three tests of greatness are eminently satis ied to the highest degree in case of prophet Mohammad. Some illustrations of the last two have already been mentioned. The irst is: Was the Prophet of Islam found to be of true metel by his contemporaries? Historical records show that all the contemporaries of Mohammad both friends foes, acknowledged the sterling qualities, the spotless honesty, the noble virtues, the absolute sincerity and every trustworthiness of the apostle of Islam in all walks of life and in every sphere of human activity. Even the Jews and those who did not believe in his message, adopted him as the arbiter in their personal disputes by virtue of his perfect impartiality. Even those who did not believe in his message were forced to say “O Mohammad, we do not call you a liar, but we deny him who has given you a book and inspired you with a message.” They thought he was one possessed. They tried violence to cure him. But the best of them saw that a new light had dawned on him and they hastened him to seek the enlightenment. It is a notable feature in the history of prophet of Islam that his nearest relation, his beloved cousin and his bosom friends, who know him most intimately, were thoroughly imbued with the truth of his mission and were convinced of the genuineness of his divine inspiration. If these men and women, noble, intelligent, educated and intimately acquainted with his private life had perceived the slightest signs of deception, fraud, earthliness, or lack of faith in him, Mohammad’s moral hope of regeneration, spiritual awakening, and social reform would all have been foredoomed to a failure and whole edi ice would have crumbled to pieces in a moment. On the contrary, we ind that devotion of his followers was such that he was voluntarily acknowledged as dictator of their lives. They braved for him persecutions and danger; they trusted, obeyed and honored him even in the most excruciating torture and severest mental agony caused by excommunication even unto death. Would this have been so, had they noticed the slightest backsliding in their master?
Read the history of the early converts to Islam, and every heart would melt at the sight of the brutal treatment of innocent Muslim men and women. Sumayya, an innocent women, is cruelly torn into pieces with spears. An example is made of “Yassir whose legs are tied to two camels and the beast were are driven in opposite directions”, Khabbab bin Arth is made lie down on the bed of burning coal with the brutal legs of their merciless tyrant on his breast so that he may not move and this makes even the fat beneath his skin melt. “Khabban bin Adi is put to death in a cruel manner by mutilation and cutting off his lesh piece-meal.” In the midst of his tortures, being asked wheather he did not wish Mohammad in his place while he was in his house with his family, the sufferer cried out that he was gladly prepared to sacri ice himself his family and children and why was it that these sons and daughters of Islam not only surrendered to their prophet their allegiance but also made a gift of their hearts and souls to their master? Is not the intense faith and conviction on part of immediate followers of Mohammad, the noblest testimony to his sincerity and to his utter selfabsorption in his appointed task? And these men were not of low station or inferior mental caliber. Around him in quite early days, gathered what was best and noblest in Mecca, its lower and cream, men of position, rank, wealth and culture, and from his own kith and kin, those who knew all about his life. All the irst four Caliphs, with their towering personalities, were converts of this period. The Encyclopedia Brittanica says that “Mohammad is the most successful of all Prophets and religious personalities”. But the success was not the result of mere accident. It was not a hit of fortune. It was a recognition of fact that he was found to be true mettle by his contemporaries. It was the result of his admirable and all compelling personality. The personality of Mohammad! It is most dif icult to get into the truth of it. Only a glimpse of it I can catch. What a dramatic succession of picturesque scenes. There is Mohammad the Prophet, there is Mohammad the General; Mohammad the King; Mohammad the Warrior; Mohammad the Businessman; Mohammad the Preacher; Mohammad the Philosopher; Mohammad the Statesman; Mohammad the Orator; Mohammad the reformer; Mohammad the Refuge
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of orphans; Mohammad the Protector of slaves; Mohammad the Emancipator of women; Mohammad the Law-giver; Mohammad the Judge; Mohammad the Saint. And in all these magni icent roles, in all these departments of human activities, he is like, a hero. Orphanhood is extreme of helplessness and his life upon this earth began with it; Kingship is the height of the material power and it ended with it. From an orphan boy to a persecuted refugee and then to an overlord, spiritual as well as temporal, of a whole nation and Arbiter of its destinies, with all its trials and temptations, with all its vicissitudes and changes, its lights and shades, its up and downs, its terror and splendor, he has stood the ire of the world and came out unscathed to serve as a model in every face of life. His achievements are not limited to one aspect of life, but cover the whole ield of human conditions. If for instance, greatness consist in the puriication of a nation, steeped in barbarism and immersed in absolute moral darkness, that dynamic personality who has transformed, re ined and uplifted an entire nation, sunk low as the Arabs were, and made them the torch-bearer of civilization and learning, has every claim to greatness. If greatness lies in unifying the discordant elements of society by ties of brotherhood and charity, the prophet of the desert has got every title to this distinction. If greatness consists in reforming those warped in degrading and blind superstition and pernicious practices of every kind, the prophet of Islam has wiped out superstitions and irrational fear from the hearts of millions. If it lies in displaying high morals, Mohammad has been admitted by friend and foe as Al Amin, or the faithful. If a conqueror is a great man, here is a person who rose from helpless orphan and an humble creature to be the ruler of Arabia, the equal to Chosroes and Caesars, one who founded great empire that has survived all these 14 centuries. If the devotion that a leader commands is the criterion of greatness, the prophet’s name even today exerts a magic charm over millions of souls, spread all over the world. He had not studied philosophy in the school of Athens of Rome, Persia, India, or China. Yet, He could proclaim the highest truths of eternal value to mankind. Illiterate himself, he could yet speak with an eloquence and fervor which
moved men to tears, to tears of ecstasy. Born an orphan blessed with no worldly goods, he was loved by all. He had studied at no military academy; yet he could organize his forces against tremendous odds and gained victories through the moral forces which he marshaled. Gifted men with genius for preaching are rare. Descartes included the perfect preacher among the rarest kind in the world. Hitler in his Mein Kamp has expressed a similar view. He says “A great theorist is seldom a great leader. An Agitator is more likely to posses these qualities. He will always be a great leader. For leadership means ability to move masses of men. The talents to produce ideas has nothing in common with capacity for leadership.” “But”, he says, “The Union of theorists, organizer and leader in one man, is the rarest phenomenon on this earth; Therein consists greatness.”
Jews in Early Islam Inconvenient History for Zionists
By Z A Rahman (Source: www.islam21c.com) Islam is a religion of mercy to all people, both Muslims and non-Muslims. The Messenger of Allah was described as being a mercy in the Qur’an due to the message he brought for humanity: “And We have not sent you but as a mercy to all the worlds.” (Quran 21:107) When a person analyses the legislations of Islam with an open mind, the mercy mentioned in this verse will de initely become apparent. One of the aspects constituting an epitome of this Mercy is the way the legislations of Islam deal with people of other faiths. The tolerant attitude of Islam towards non-Muslims, whether they be those residing in their own countries or within the Muslim lands, can be clearly seen through a study of history. Muslim jurists use the term ‘Dhimmi’ or ‘Ahl ul-Dhimma’ – ‘People of the Covenant’ to refer to non-Muslim residents and means a treaty of protection for nonMuslims living in Muslim territory. At a time in which we see the Zionist state of Israel committing atrocities against the Muslims in Gaza in the name of defending the ’Jewish state‘, it is worth reminding the Zionists and their sympathisers how the Jewish people were treated as People of the Covenant throughout the history of Islam. During the life of the Prophet (s) When the Messenger of Allah (s) migrated from
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Makkah to Madinah, there was a small community (three tribes) of Jews there, with Arab communities constituting the majority of the population that resided there. The immediate result of the Prophet’s migration to Madinah was peace and unity between the communities of Aws and Khazraj. The Prophet, motivated by the general welfare of citizens of Madinah, decided to offer his services to the remaining communities including the Jews and as such, the Treaty between Muslims, non-Muslim Arabs and Jews of Madinah was put in writing and rati ied by all parties. The document referred to the Messenger of Allah (s) as the Prophet and Messenger of God but it was understood that the Jews did not have to recognise him as such for their own religious reasons. The major parts of the document with respect to the Jews were: “Whosoever among the Jews follows us shall have help and equality; they shall not be injured nor shall any enemy be aided against them…No separate peace will be made when the Believers are fighting in the way of Allah…The Believers shall avenge the blood of one another shed in the way of Allah…Whosoever kills a Believer wrongfully shall be liable to retaliation; all the Believers shall be against him as one man and they are bound to take action against him.” “The Jews shall contribute (to the cost of war) with the Believers so long as they are at war with a common enemy. The Jews of Banu Najjar, Banu al-Harith, Banu Sa’idah, Banu Jusham, Banu alAws, Banu Tha’labah, Jafnah, and Banu alShutaybah enjoy the same rights and privileges as the Jews of Banu Aws.” “The Jews shall maintain their own religion and the Muslims theirs. Loyalty is a protection against treachery. The close friends of Jews are as themselves. None of them shall go out on a military expedition except with the permission of Muhammad, but he shall not be prevented from taking revenge for a wound.” “The Jews shall be responsible for their expenses and the Believers for theirs. Each, if attacked, shall come to the assistance of the other.” (The Sealed Nectar: Biography of the Prophet by Al-Raheeq Al-Makhtum , p.394) This document came to be known as the Sahifat al-Madinah ‘Constitution of the Islamic State of Madinah’. The historian Mark Graham states: “Muhammad’s brilliance lay in politics as well as spirituality. One of the most extraordinary events to take place during this time was the
drafting of the Covenant of Medina, what some consider to be the world’s first constitution. This amazingly foresighted document was a revolutionary step forward in civil government.” (How Islam Created the Modern World. Amana Publications, 2006, p. 21.) As for the Prophet’s treatment of the Jews in general, there are many examples that show his kindness to them. For example, a young Jewish boy used to serve the Prophet and he became sick, and so the Prophet went to visit him. (Bukhāri) It is also reported that a funeral of a Jew passed before the Prophet (s). As a sign of respect, the Prophet stood up. As a result the Prophet was asked “Why did you stand up for a Jewish funeral?” The Prophet (s) replied, “Is it not a human soul?“.(Bukhāri) It should also be remembered that in order to tie civil bonds and to express his nearness to the Jews in his ancestry, the Prophet (s) married Sa iyyah bint Huyay (r), daughter of the chief of the Jewish tribe of Banu al-Nadīr. She was captured during the Battle of Khaybar and as an honourable gesture showing the magnanimity of Islam, the Prophet freed and married her. Rule of the Rightly Guided Caliphs Modern welfare states provide social beneits to their poor citizens, but arguably Islam preceded all nations in establishing social security services for Muslims as well as nonMuslims. Umar b. al-Khattāb (r) the second caliph of Islam, once passed by an old, blind man begging in front of a house. Umar asked him which religious community he belonged to. The man said he was Jewish. Umar then asked him, “What has brought you to this?” The old man said, “Do not ask me, poverty and old age.” Umar took the man to his own home, helped him from his personal money, and then ordered the head of the treasury, “You must look after this man and others like him. We have not treated him fairly. He should not have spent the best years of his life among us to ind misery in his old age.” Umar also relieved him and others in his situation of paying theJizya (the tax non-Muslim subjects were required to pay for protection in the Muslims lands, similar in value to the alms obliged on the Muslims). (Ahkām Ahl alDhimmah by Ibn al-Qayyim, 1/38) When Umar was handed the keys to Jerusalem, he guaranteed the rights of all faiths, including the Jews. On one occasion, some Muslims usurped a piece of land belonging to a Jew and then constructed on it a mosque. The justice
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of Umar and indeed Islam is such that he ordered the demolition of the mosque and the restoration of the land to its Jewish owner. Dr Hamidullāh in his book ‘The Status of non-Muslims in Islam’ says that a Lebanese Christian scholar, Professor Cardahi, wrote in 1933 about this land: “this house of the Bait al-Yahudi, still exists and is well-known.” (http://muslimcanada.org/ ch12hamid.html) Another example of the justice of Islam in its treatment of the Jewish community is found in the time of the fourth caliph of Islam. Once, a dispute arose between Alī b. Abī Tālib (r), when he was the Caliph, and a Jewish man. Both parties took their disputes to a judge, Shurayh alKindi. Shurayh relates the details of what happened:
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addressed Alī saying: “The coat of armour is yours, Commander of the Faithful. You dropped it at night and I found it.”
The period of Islamic Empires A further example of how the Jews as People of the Covenant were treated is found in the statement of a famous classical scholar of Islam, Imām al-Awzā’ī in his letter to the Abbasid governor, Sālih b. ‘Alī b. Abdillāh when he writes, “They (Jews and Christians) are not slaves, so beware of changing their status after they have lived in freedom. They are free People of the Covenant.” Abu Ubayd al Amwaal p. 574 , 575. Zaydan, Dr. Abd al-Karim, ‘Ahkām al-Dhimmiyīn walMusta’minīn,’ p. 77.) Acknowledging this fact, Ron Landau wrote:
“Alī found he was miss“In contrast to the ing his coat of mail, so he Christian Empire, which went back to Kūfa and attempted to impose found it in the hands of a Christianity on its subJewish man who was selling jects, the Arabs extendit in the market. He said, “O ed recognition to reliJew, that coat of mail is gious minorities, and mine! I did not give it away accepted their presence. or sell it!” The Jew respondJews, Christians and ed “It is mine. It is in my Zoroastrians were possession.” Alī said, “We known to them as the will have the judge rule on People of the Covenant; this for us.” So they came to in other words, the name and Alī sat next to me tions who enjoyed a and said, “That coat of Hazrat Ameer opening the proceedings to celebrate 90 protected status.”[9] years of building of the Berlin Mosque. mail is mine; I did not give We have seen in this it away or sell it.” The Jew article how the Jews sat in front of me and said, “That is my coat of mail. It is in my possession.” were acknowledged as people of the book and a I asked, ‘O Commander of the Faithful (Alī), do you have any proof?’ “Yes” Alī said. “My son Hasan and Qanbarah can testify that it is my coat of mail.” I said, “Commander of the Faithful, the testimony of a son in his father’s favour is not admissible in court.” On seeing this, the Jewish man said, “The Commander of the Faithful (i.e. Alī) takes me before his own judge and the judge rules in my favour against him! I bear witness that no one deserves worship except God and that Muhammad is His Messenger.” The Jewish man accepted Islam, and then
people upon whom Allah had bestowed many favours in the past, and the interaction of the Muslim community with them was in accordance with this belief. We have seen how the Messenger of Allah (s) and his companions justly dealt with them. In part 2 of this article, we will explore how the Muslims dealt with the Jews when they were a global power in the age of empires.
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