18. OUT OF CONTEXT
There
is no doubt that Islam is the fastest growing religion, not only because of
mass conversion to it, but also because of rapid increase of already high birth
rate of its followers. Even without conversion Islam would become one day the
greatest religion in the world, while it is now still in the second position
after Christianity. We have witnessed that many churches in the West (Europe,
America and Canada) have been turned into mosques because of lack of church
attendants. It is not an exaggeration that some Christians are only so by name,
as they attend the church three times only in their lifetimes: (a) when they
were born and brought to the church to be baptized; (b) when they got married
and came by himself voluntarily to the church, and (c) when they die they are
carried to the church.
According
to Pew Research Center concerning the Future of world religions on the
Population Growth Projections from 2010 to 2050, the Christian world population
will increase from
2.17 billion to 2.92 billion, but the percentage will
remain, 31.4% of world population, whereas Islam in the same period will
increase from 1.6 billion to 2.76 billion, the percentage will increase from 23.2
% to 29.7 %, so that in 2050 the
number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world.
Their number will be equal in 2070, approximately 32.3%, but in 2100 Islam
(34.9%) will be ahead of Christianity (33.8%). In 2050 Muslims will make up 10%
over the population of Europe, whereas in India although the Hindu religion
will remain the majority, it will have the largest Muslim population of any
country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.
There is also no doubt that Islam is the most misunderstood
religion, even by Muslims themselves, let alone non-Muslims. Some of the
Muslims may think that the injunction of applying penalty against committed
crimes should be applied individually rather than collectively, in this case,
the ruler or the government. In other words, they may think that it is an
individual duty rather than a collective one, so that they may take the law
into their own hands. When the ruler acts slowly out of carefulness they may
revolt against it and brand it an irreligious one. Although the Qur’an was
revealed in بِلِسَانٍ عَرَبِيٍّ مُبِينٍ (الشعراء:195) “In
the plain Arabic language” (Q. 26:195), it does not necessarily mean that
everybody whose mother-tongue is Arabic can understand it clearly, because it
was revealed fourteen centuries ago. Even English speaking people would have
difficulty in understanding the language of the English poet and dramatist
William Shakespeare (d. 1616) of the 16th and 17th
century, let alone the language of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400) of
the 14th century.
One of many verses cited by non-Muslims to discredit Islam as an
aggressive religion which promotes intolerance is as follows:
قَاتِلُوا الَّذِينَ لَا
يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَلَا بِالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَلَا يُحَرِّمُونَ
مَا حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ
وَلَا يَدِينُونَ دِينَ الْحَقِّ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ
حَتَّى يُعْطُوا الْجِزْيَةَ
عَنْ يَدٍ وَهُمْ صَاغِرُونَ (التوبة:29)
Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor
in
the Last
Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden
by Allah and
His Messenger (Muhammad s.a.w.) and
those who acknowledge not the religion of truth
(i.e.,
Islam among
the people of the Scripture (Jews and
Christians)
until they pay the jizyah with willing
submission,
and feel themselves subdued. (Q. 9:29)
This verse was revealed in the year 9th
of Hijrah when the Prophet had become the sole de facto ruler of the Arabian Peninsula.
One year earlier he and his army had conquered Makkah without any resistance,
and later that year subjugated the enemy at the battle of Ḥunayn, which was the
last campaign. The conflict with the Quraysh idolaters had been settled as they
entered into Islam. The Prophet as the head of the city-state Madinah had made
a treaty with the Jewish people. Two years earlier the Jews of Khaybar were
banished for their betraying the treaty.
When the above verse was
revealed there was no longer any threat or resistance or any danger from
non-Muslims inside the country. It was revealed in the year called in Islamic
history عَامُ الْوُفُود, “the Year of Deputation,” where over seventy delegations came
to Madinah to meet the Prophet for various reasons. The delegates kept coming
even after the 10th of Hijrah. The delegates from Hawāzin and Tamīm
tribes came to ask the Prophet to release the captives among their people.
Others came to ask the Prophet’s guarantee of protection, that he would not
attack them. Others came to express their intention to become Muslims. Some
came to express their intention to pay jizyah (“protection” tax for
non-Muslims instead of zakat for Muslims). Some came to conduct a dialogue with the
Prophet, such as the delegation from Christian Najrān consisting of sixty horsemen.
Twenty-four among them were their chiefs, and three of them were their leaders.
They were ‘Abdul Masīḥ (titled “al-‘Āqib”, “the Subsequent”) who gave advice
and made decision, al-Ayham, also known as Sharahbīl (titled “al-Sayyid”, “the
Master”) their leader in the journey and social gathering, and Abū Ḥārithah ibn
‘Alqamah (titled “al-Usquf”, “the Bishop”) their priest and religious leader.
This Najrān tribe was big enough, consisting of 73 villages, having 100.000 men
as its army.
As the delegates did not want to
embrace Islam even after the Prophet cited the Qur’an to them, they asked him
about Jesus (‘Isā a.s.). The Prophet later received revelation answering
the question, as follows:
إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَى عِنْدَ
اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَمَ خَلَقَهُ مِنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ.
الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّكَ
فَلَا تَكُنْ مِنَ الْمُمْتَرِينَ. فَمَنْ حَاجَّكَ فِيهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَكَ
مِنَ الْعِلْمِ فَقُلْ تَعَالَوْا نَدْعُ أَبْنَاءَنَا
وَأَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَنِسَاءَنَا وَنِسَاءَكُمْ
وَأَنْفُسَنَا
وَأَنْفُسَكُمْ ثُمَّ نَبْتَهِلْ
فَنَجْعَلْ لَعْنَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَى
الْكَاذِبِينَ ( آل عمران:61)
Then
whoever disputes with you concerning him [Jesus,
‘Īsā a.s.]
after (all) this knowledge that has come to you
[i.e., ‘Īsā being
a slave of Allah and having no share in
divinity], say (O Muhammad): “Come, let us call our
sons
and your
sons, our women and your women, ourselves
and
ourselves – then we pray and invoke (sincerely)
the Curse of
Allah upon those who lie.” (Q. 3:61)
The next day the Prophet came with his daughter Fāṭimah, his grandsons Ḥasan
and Ḥusayn to meet them, gave his answer according to the revelation, and
challenged them with mubāhalah, (i.e., the act of invoking Allah
for curses against whoever is not telling the truth among the two contenders,
the Prophet and his daughter and grandsons on one side, and the delegations of
Najrān on the other). Fearing for their lives and thinking the he might be a
true prophet, they decided to cancel the mubāhalah. Instead, they
remained Christians, conducted a peace treaty with him, and asked him to send
them a trusted man as a judge and to collect jizyah, then returned home.
It is said that both leader ‘Aqīb and al-Sayyid embraced Islam upon their
return to Najrān. Islam spread among the people of Najrān the Prophet sent ‘Ali
ibn Abī Ṭalib to collect zakat from the Muslims among them.
Therefore, it is very wrong to say that
the Muslims are enjoined to fight any non-Muslim based on the above verse. The
above verse was revealed to indicate the second phase of Islam, to defend it
from the outside threat. At that time the Romans killed people who converted to
Islam in Syria. One example was Farwah ibn ‘Amr al-Judhāmī, the Roman Governor
at Ma‘ān who converted to Islam. He sent a delegation to the Prophet to let him
know of his conversion. The Prophet gave him a white horse in return of his conversion
to Islam. The Roman emperor at that time wanted him to return to Christianity,
but he rejected. He was arrested and imprisoned. Eventually, he was crucified
in Palestine, and beheaded near a spring called ‘Afrā’ (عَفْرَاء).
For this reason Allah revealed the above
verse to the Prophet for the first time to fight the People of the Book (Jews
and Christians) in this case the army of the Christian Roman empire for their
persecuting the Muslims in Syria. He called people in Madinah and surrounding
areas to defend their Muslim brothers and to fight the Romans. They responded
his call, and mobilized about 30.000 fighters and 10.000 horsemen. This was
called in Islamic history the Tabūk expedition.
The campaign would
eventually end with treaty, that they paid jizyah, namely head-tax
willingly and obediently, provided that they can easily afford it. The term jizyah literally means “a compensation”
(in lieu of something else”) for the protection of non-Muslims under Muslim
rule against foreign attack, especially the Romans. It is also a compensation
for their being relieved from joining the Muslim army. It is for them less than
what the Muslims have to pay as zakat (head tax and property tax) and
others, such charity (ṣadaqah), solemn pledge (nadhr), penance
for violating certain religious regulations (kaffārah), etc. Moreover,
these non-Muslims under the Muslim rule called ahl al-dhimmah (people
under protection), or simply dhimmī (protected person) are exempted from
joining the Muslim army, and when they became old they would get assistance
from the state treasury (bayt al-māl) like what Caliph ‘Umar did with poor
dhimmīs. Abū ‘Ubaydah ‘Āmir ibn al-Jarrāh imposed jizyah on the
people of Ḥimṣ for their protection against the Romans. When his army was infected
with plague and was no longer able to protect the inhabitants of Ḥimṣ against
the Roman invasion, he returned the jizyah to them.
Some of the dhimmis are exempted from paying jizyah.
They are: (a) all women (b) all males who have not reached full maturity
(c) old men (d) all sick or crippled men, and (e) priests and monks.
Non-Muslims citizen who voluntarily join military service are also exempted
from paying jizyah. Like the Jews and the Christians the Magians also
pay jizyah, because the Prophet said that they have to be treated like the
people of the Book (the Jews and the Christians). All Muslim scholars agree
with it. Abū Ḥanīfah said that all non-Muslims under the Muslim rule have to
pay jizyah, disregarding their faiths, because, according to him, all
disbeliefs belong to one religion, namely, disbelief(الْكُفْرُ كُلُّهُ مِلَّةٌ وَاحِدَة) “all infidelity belong to
one religion". Most of the followers of
Imām Mālik hold this view, but according to al-Shāfi‘ī the jizyah should
be imposed on exclusively the Jews, the Christians, and the Magians.
In
conclusion, the injunction of fighting the Jews and the Christians was basically
directed to the Romans among them who started hostility by persecuting Muslims
in their territories. Muslims have right to defend their Muslim brothers. When
the enemies surrendered they were asked to pay jizyah if they could
afford it, and they did not have to pay war reparation as Germany and Japan did
after the Second World War. The kind of “humiliation” and the “burden” of
paying jizyah they suffered would be removed automatically when they
become Muslims. Let those who used to attack Islam as an aggressive religion citing
this above verse avoid it, and let those who abandon Islam based on this verse
return to it.
(CIVIC,
13 November, 2015)
المصادر:
المكتبة الشاملة
تفسير الطبري (ت. 310 هـ(
تفسير القرطبى (ت. 671 هـ(
تفسير ابن كثير (ت. 774 هـ(
محمد أبو زهرة.(ت1394هـ\1974م). زهرة التفاسير.
دار الفكر العربي
Asad, Muhammad. The
Message of the Qur’ān. Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus, 1964.
Abu Khalil, Dr. Shauqi. Atlas
of the Qur’ān. Riyadh, Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, 2003
https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/فروة_بن_عمرو_الجذامي
http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/
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