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Back You are here: Home Library Islam Philosophy of Islam chapter 18 - Sources of Cannon Law Relations of the Muslims with Others

Relations of the Muslims with Others

Relations of the Muslims with Others

We know that the Muslim ummah has come into existence on the basis of a particular system of doctrines and actions, and its continuance depends on the preservation of its ideology and the stability of its social set up.

Evidently the individuals and nations not subscribing to Islamic ideology, being beyond its doctrinal pale, cannot be considered to be members of the Muslim ummah. They are aliens, but the degree of their alienation will be judged by these two considerations:

(1) How far they share the ideology of Islam?

(2) To what extent they are hostile to the Muslims? As regards (1) above

(a) Islam believes that the whole world and all its pheno­mena. depend on an absolute truth which transcends matter, viz. Allah. The whole world, including man has been created and is being maintained by Him.

(b) From the Islamic point of view man, in order to know the true nature of the world and to become aware of his own relation with Allah, should turn to revelation, which is a great source of knowledge. As such, belief in the Prophets and their invisible contact with Allah is a part of Islamic Cosmology.

(c) Next to the belief in Allah and revelation there is a question of doing good deeds, which include all individual and collective efforts for human welfare and development.

Islam has a close relation with all other systems which are also based on these three principles. But it has no relations with the materialistic and polytheistic ideologies and systems.

On this basis, Islam will have especially close relations with a system which believes in the Unity of Allah in its true Islamic sense. If a system also believes in true Divine revelation, in the Prophets and‑ the Divine Scriptures, Islam's relation with it will naturally be deeper. The Qur'an has repeatedly referred to this natural affinity between various Divine systems. It considers their origin and their basic principles to be common and coherent. Of course, this does not mean the endorsement of the present beliefs of the followers of these religions or of the contents of their existing religious books. This is only a recognition of the Divine origin of these religions. The Qur'an draws the attention of the followers of these religions to their deviations and wants to reform them.

(2) The hostility which others show to Islam has several degrees:

(a) Sometimes they oppose the Muslims formally. They either actually launch an attack against the land of the Muslims, their life and property or their religion, or at least have an intention to do so. In this case they will be regarded as invaders and aggressors.

It is but logical that the life, property and the land of an invading enemy is not to be respected, and so long as he is at war, friendly contact or co‑operation with him is not allowed. This is the case in which the question of jihad, defence and their relevant rules arises.

(b) A nation which has no intention to attack and betray the Muslim ummah or a Muslim country and is not intriguing against them, will not be considered to be an aggressor: If it enters into a peace treaty with the Muslims or a pact of non‑aggression and reciprocal respect of the borders and the rights of each other, such agreement will be respected, whether it is concluded direct between the Muslims and a non‑Muslim country or both of them join a common world covenant resulting in an undertaking of mutual respect and preservation of the borders of others. In this case the non‑Muslim country or nation will be in peaceful treaty relations with the Muslims and the agreement concluded with it will be respected so long as it does not visibly or invisibly violate it by hatching an intrigue or launching an aggression. If it is found to be intriguing against the Muslims it will, of course, be regarded as an enemy.

In history we find that wherever the interest of the Muslim ummah demanded, the holy Prophet concluded a treaty of peace and non‑aggression even with the polytheists. We see that in the sixth year of the Hijri era he signed a treaty with the polytheists of Mecca. He respected it and scrupulously implemented every clause of it, till the enemy himself practically abrogated it. It was only then that the Prophet decided to take action against the enemy for being guilty of violating the treaty. Thus the way was prepared for the conquest of Mecca, which was conquered in 8 A.H. We find that during the madinite period of his life the holy Prophet concluded a number of treaties and pacts.

(c) The third class consists of those non‑Muslims who live under the protection of the Muslim government. They are called zimmi and their life, property and even religious rites are respected, provided they abide by their covenant and pay the capitation tax. They can live peacefully along with the Muslims and enjoy all human rights.

With this brief explanation of the relations of the Muslims with the non‑Muslims we can understand all the basic teachings of Islam having a bearing on the foreign policy of Muslim society.

In this connection one of the most important questions is that of jihad. The importance which Islam attaches to it has unfortunately given a weapon in the hands of the opponents of this Divine system to project the valuable teachings of Islam in a distorted form and to launch an attack against the Qur'an and Islam by declaring in their writings and speeches that Islam is a religion of sword.

In our opinion the best way to enable you to understand the correctness or otherwise of this assertion is to acquaint you further with the salient features of jihad in Islam.

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