IT will not be wrong to say that the most misunderstood and misconstrued religion among the world’s major religions today is Islam, a faith followed by almost a quarter of the world’s population.
Many misconceptions, such as that Islam shows hostility towards non-Muslims, etc., continue to be expressed. But if someone studies the Quran, which is the unrivalled foundation of Islam, the life of Prophet Muhammad, the authentic Hadith, the sayings and edicts of the Prophet, and the acts, wisdom and directives of rightly-guided caliphs or leaders of the Muslims who succeeded the Prophet, it will be obvious that such misconceptions go against the teachings of Islam.
In Islam, the Quran is the highest authority in a Muslim’s way of life not only for matters concerning religious beliefs and rituals of worship, but also the lifestyle, legal principles, social norms and all other activities. Therein are the practical teachings on the rights of non-Muslims, ways to build and maintain peaceful coexistence with everyone and commanding Muslims to be just to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
The Quran makes a special mention about adal (justice) and ihsan (good conduct). And there is no place here for discriminatory prescriptions in dispensing justice and good conduct on the basis of race and faith.
There is no better example than that of Prophet Muhammad himself. It can be learnt from authentic traditions and sayings of the prophet and the historical records that the Prophet, his companions and the law-abiding generations of Muslims precisely followed and molded their lives according to the commands of the Quran.
The prophet was very insistent on exercising justice towards the non-Muslim minority living under the governance of Muslims, so much so that many of his utterances on the matter can be found in canonical Islamic texts.
For instance, it is recorded in the Sunan Abu Dawood, one of the six most prestigious canonical texts (Hadith), that the Prophet once proclaimed: “No doubt, if anyone wrongs a person protected by a covenant, violates his rights, burdens him with more work than he is able to do, or takes something from him without his consent, then I will be his advocate on the Day of Resurrection.”
Here, the expression “a person protected by a covenant” denotes a non-Muslim subject living in the land ruled by Muslims.
After the Prophet’s death, the successive caliphs and leaders of Muslims did not fail to follow the prophet in this regard.
It was recorded by annalist Tabari in his historical accounts that Umar bin Al Khattab, the second rightly guided caliph of Islam, in his peace treaty with inhabitants of Jerusalem, ratified the promise of safeguarding the lives, property, land, churches, places of worship and crucifixes of non-Muslims and guaranteed the freedom of worship.
During the reign of Umayyad, Caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz, who is known as Umar II in the history of Islam, saw a non-Muslim old man begging from house to house. The old man told him that due to his age, he was unable to work to earn a living and, thus, had to beg for his survival. On hearing that, the caliph sorrowfully said: “While you were young and able-bodied, we used to collect tax from you, and if we fail to take care of you in your old age, there would not be anyone more unjust than us.”
After that, the caliph ordered his administrators to provide money annually from the Baitul Maal (Public Treasury) to the old man. This incident was recorded in the Kitab al Amwal by Abu Ubayd Qasim bin Salaam.
There is much evidence in Islamic canonical and historical texts that if someone had to do a serious research and write a treatise on this subject, a copious volume would result.
HAIDER KOTWAL
Kuala Lumpur