The message God revealed to His servant and Messenger, Muhammad (peace be upon him), was carried by Muslims to most areas of the world. They asked the rulers in all countries to allow them access to their people so that they would convey to them God’s message to mankind.
They had learned from the Prophet that scholars are the heirs to the divine message and that they are required to present it to mankind. He repeatedly encouraged them to do so, as we note in the Hadith which says: “Convey to people even a single Qur’anic verse on my behalf.” He also says: “May God bless a person who listens to what I say, understands it and carries it to someone who has not directly heard it from me. It may well be that a person so told is better able to understand than the one who has heard it directly, and it may well be that one person carries knowledge to someone who is more knowledgeable than he.”
However, Muslims were not allowed to explain their message. They were denied access to people. Instead, war was waged against them and they had to fight. God enabled them to achieve victory and many countries came under their authority. Some people preferred to adhere to their old faiths while others chose to embrace Islam. These new converts were to the Muslim community in the same position as parts of one’s own body. They had the same status as the rest of the Muslim community.
As for those who wished to retain their own religions, the Muslims were eager to ensure for them the protection of their land, property, temples and the administration of their own laws in personal and family matters.
They also wanted to protect them against injustice and tyranny, and to fight alongside them should any external power try to invade their land. Hence, they developed the dhimmah contract which they concluded with ethnic people.
The model for this contract was the pledge given by the Prophet to the Christian population of Najran and the people of Al-Hasa.
They added to it whatever was required by local circumstances and practical necessities.
The idea behind this contract is to outline the Muslims’ commitment to safeguard the interests of ethnic people who choose to retain their original faiths. Muslims were also required under this contract to protect such people’s places of worship, ensure that their rights are respected and not to interfere in their choice of religious leaders: “No priest or bishop shall suffer any alteration to his priesthood or bishopric.” Such people were required to pay, in addition to the tax on their agricultural land, a protection tax called jizyah, in return for the military protection they received. Its amount ranged from two dirhams to two dinars, the silver and gold currencies of the time respectively. This was payable by everyone who was able to fight and could afford payment. Thus, no jizyah was levied on elderly people who could not carry arms, priests, women or children, because none of these could fight.
This protection tax, i.e. jizyah, was levied once a year. In his scholarly commentary on Al-Bukhari’s Sahih, Ibn Hajar says that it is due in lieu of jihad. Hence, it is chargeable once a year in the same way that jihad, or at least getting ready for it, is required of all Muslims once a year.
When Muslims, under Abu Ubaydah ibn Al-Jarrah, a distinguished companion of the Prophet, felt unable to provide the necessary protection to the people of some towns in Syria because they were preoccupied with repelling Byzantine armies, they returned to those people what they had taken from them in protection tax.
Another example was provided by the population of a number of mountain villages in today’s central Turkey. These people agreed to help the Muslims against the Byzantines, providing useful intelligence. Hence, the Muslims waived their protection tax. The commander in this case was also Abu Ubaydah.
Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh was the commander of a Muslim army that had in its ranks scores of the Prophet’s companions. The army led a long siege to Nubia in southern Egypt, but was unable to conquer the area. He then made peace arrangements with its population that required them to give the Muslims a portion of their agricultural produce in return for sufficient quantities of Egyptian clothes.
All the Nubia people later adopted Islam. They have continued ever since to man Egypt’s border garrisons. They are renowned for their honesty, integrity and sincerity.
When Jerusalem surrendered to the Muslims, its population made it a condition that they would not give its keys to anyone other than the Caliph, (Umar ibn Al-Khattab). They also stipulated that they would be guaranteed that no Jews should be allowed to live in their city. The caliph agreed to both their conditions and traveled from Madinah to Jerusalem — may God facilitate its return to its rightful people — to receive its keys from its patriarch. He wrote down a treaty binding on the Muslims and the people of Jerusalem, guaranteeing the fulfillment of the conditions they stipulated. This was a splendid example of legal documentation at this early age, reflecting the practical approach of Muslim rulers.
When the Muslims aimed to liberate Egypt, the Egyptian Copts were going through hard times, unable to declare their beliefs in the open. In fact, Patriarch Benjamin, the head of the Coptic Church was in hiding in the desert area of upper Egypt. Churches were closed down by the Byzantines. The Muslim commander, Amr ibn Al-As, accompanied by a number of the Prophet’s companions, guaranteed for the Egyptians that their Patriarch would be returned to his seat, all churches would be opened and Christians would be practicing their religion in peace. Amr and the Prophet’s companions honored their pledges, and Muslims continue to honor these pledges up to the present time, intending to carry on honoring them in the future. In the same period, the Muslims signed a peace treaty with the people of Cyprus, without imposing the jizyah, or the protection tax, on them. Imposing such a tax is not obligatory. At the time, the Muslims, with many of the learned companions of the Prophet in their ranks, considered each case separately in the light of what they felt to serve the best interests of all parties.
History does not record a single incident of Muslims violating their treaties with the people of the areas that came under Islamic rule. Indeed they called such treaties as pledges given by God and His Messenger, and considered them to be valid for the rest of time.
They thus hoped that no future oppressive ruler would dare to violate them. When later Muslim countries came to live under tyranny, oppression applied to both Muslims and non-Muslims. As the rule of Islam was abandoned in these countries, some non-Muslim communities experienced ill treatment for which Islam has been wrongfully blamed.
Muslim communities that abandoned God’s revelations came to rue their actions. They were subjugated in their lands and lived for long periods under colonial rule. This confirms the Qur’anic statement: “Never would your Lord wrongfully destroy a community so long as its people behave righteously.” (11: 117)
Arab News Islam 5 May 2003