In classical Islamic civilization, Muslim authorities allowed Zoroastrians to engage in brother-sister marriage, Jews to charge interest, and Christians to cultivate wine and pigs. The scholars who built up the Shariah system could easily have prohibited such practices among its subjects but they did not. The Shariah effectively facilitated them.
In the famous ‘Constitution of Medina,’ the Prophet (pbuh) agreed with the major tribes of Medina (pagan and Muslim) as well as with many smaller Jewish clans that they are all ‘one umma’ that makes war and peace together under the Prophet’s command.
Although the document never specifically mentions the right of the non-Muslims in Medina to practice their religions freely, there was no need to. They were simply accepted as they were in the ‘one community,’ with no mention even of paying any special tax.
As the Muslim state expanded further into northern and southern Arabia, the Quran revealed the duty of the jizya tax for Christians and Jews who came under Muslim rule (Quran 9:29, this was later expanded to include every other religious community the Muslims encountered, starting with the Prophet’s treating Zoroastrians similarly to the ahl al-kitab mentioned in the Quran).
The Prophet promised that their churches and clergy (Christians of Najran) would be guaranteed protection by the Muslims. This guaranteed the protection of non-Muslims’ lives, property, places of worship and sacred symbols in return for the jiyza payment. But the Prophet prohibits them from engaging in riba (usury, interest).
Several versions of the 'Pact of Umar' (treaties struck by the caliph Umar) include a clause prohibiting Christians from selling wine. These treaties differed from city to city, however, often for obvious reasons: in cities like Damascus and Bukhara, Muslims settled right in the heart of the town, side by side with Christians, Jews, Buddhists, etc.
According to Imam Shafi’i’s understanding of the laws regulating non-Muslims, they were only not allowed to sell wine (or anything else Islam prohibited) to Muslims. If non-Muslims live in separate areas they could have their own processions, consume wine and raise pigs. Imam Shafi’i wrote to non-Muslims who came to a Muslim court that they would be dealt with “according to our law.”
The Shafi’i and Hanbali schools, did not acknowledge the validity of non-Muslim laws in the face of the Shariah; non-Muslim contracts, etc. According to Imam Shafi’i, a Muslim judge should not acknowledge the property rights of a Christian over a pig or a barrel of wine, since these items were forbidden and valueless in Islam.
The Hanafi and Maliki schools, took a more subjective approach: because Christians and Jews treated items like wine as property with value to them, Muslims had to acknowledge that status as property. So if a Muslim destroyed a Christian’s wine barrel, the Muslim would be liable for compensating the Christian for the damage caused.
The Hanafi and Maliki schools allows a Muslim to engage in a commercial partnership with non-Muslims even if the non-Muslims’ wealth was acquired from selling wine, pigs or riba, since they believed it was permissible for themselves.
In general, non-Muslims were allowed to engage in practices that Muslims considered reprehensible provided that:
1) this practice or belief was really part of their religion; and
2) it did not actually contravene their religion.
For example, Christians had to be allowed to drink wine because it formed a crucial part of their church service. But neither Christians nor Jews could engage in fornication or adultery, since such acts were prohibited in their religions.
The Prophet had ordered Jews in Medina to be executed for zina not on the basis of Islamic law but rather on the basis of the Torah. Theft and murder could not be permitted amongst non-Muslims because they were prohibited in every law that Muslims knew of.
However, just because the Shariah allowed non-Muslims to engage in practices that Islam condemned as reprehensible, that does not mean that the Shariah approves of them.
Source : Jonathan A.C. Brown
Wallahu'alam
No comments:
Post a Comment