November 2014

The Light

Editors:

Shahid Aziz

Mustaq Ali

Contents: Page

The Call of the Messiah 1

Muhammad (s) III 4

By Prof K. S. Ramakrishna Rao

Jews in early Islam 6

Bu Z A Rehman

م می

حالر

ن

م

ح اہلل الر

م س

ب

The Call of the Messiah

by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah and Mahdi

(Ayyam us Sulah, continued from last month, Footnote to text.)

All the Afghans, it cannot be denied,-Yusafzye, Daooazye, Lodh’i Sarwani, Aurakzye, Saddozye, Barakzye are Bani Israel (Children of Israel), and Qais is their greet progenitor. There is also a very well-known tradition told by the Afghans that from the mother’s side their ancestry goes back to Sarah daughter of Khalid bin Waleed; that is to say, Qais, their great progenitor, had mar-ried Sarah, and in this sense, therefore, the Afghans are also the Children of Khalid bin Waleed. Anyhow, there is among the Af-

ghans, consensus of opinion over the historical fact that Qais, their great progenitor, was from among the Children of Israel. It has been ac-cepted unanimously by the three nations, the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims, that the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar at about 700 years before the birth of Jesus, had taken the Children of Israel prisoners, and sent them to Babylon in captivity. After this event, out of the twelve tribes of Israel, only two tribes of Judah and Benjamin returned to their country, whereas the remaining ten continued in their Eastern captivity; and since the Jews, up to this time, have not been able to tell the wherea-bouts of those tribes, nor have they been in touch with them, it is presumable that the tribes might have at last become Muslims. Fur-thermore, when we, leaving this story as it is, cast a glance on their historical legends that they had been, from ancient times, hearing from their ancestors that they were in reality of the Jewish descent as stated in detail in the book Makhzan Afghani, there remains no doubt whatsoever as to the fact that these people have come down from the same ten tribes who are said to have been lost in the Eastern coun-tries, and that the Kashmiris, too, who resem-

ble the Afghans so closely in their man-ner and make, be-long to the same stock. Bernier, on the authority of sev-eral English writers, has also proved in respect of the Kash-miris that their an-cestry goes back to Israel. And in dealing with and discussing such a thing which a nation has been acknowledging, gen-eration after genera-tion, about its gene-

alogy and descent it is absolutely improper that

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2 The Light

basis of some conjectures, should stand up to exclude him from the nation in which he be-lieves himself to be included, and admits not that he belongs to that nation, and rejects all those arguments and proofs, accumulated and adduced by the statements of generation after generation, and has no regard for the consensus of opinion of the huge majority, how much wicked and mischievous such a person would seem to be? So, according to the wise saying, all things whatsoever ye would that men should not do to you, do ye not even so to them, it seems also to be improper that an inquiry be instituted unnecessarily into the kind of nation-ality of others which has been admitted and accepted through a huge national consensus and assent. What right have we and what argument

is there in our hands to set aside and quash by a mere word facts agreed upon and acknowl-edged by the whole nation? When a thing has been decided to be correct through repeated agreement, there remains no room for conjecture or pre-sumption. It should also be re-membered that the people of some nations make hyperbolical and senseless statements with regard to their nationalities. But investigators or research schol-ars throw not away the real facts on account of these extravagant statements, but shape their course and act up to. For in-stance, it is also written in the biography of the Buddha that he was born through his mother's mouth. But when we sit down to

write the history of Buddha, we should not, in view of this fantastic statement about his birth, write to deny the real existence of Buddha. The art of history writing is indeed a very delicate thing. In the execution of this work, only he can tread upon the right road of rectitude and up-rightness who keeps away and abstains from indulging in exaggeration as well as under-estimation. And this objection, too, is incorrect and wrong that if the Afghans had been of the Hebrew origin, how is it that there are no He-brew terms in their names, and that the genea-logical tree produced by them, disagrees with some passages of the Torah? All these things are nothing but whims which cannot rub off and

we should, taking our beliefs based upon some senseless conjectures, set aside and reject its acknowledged and accepted facts; otherwise no people in the world, I think, will be able to es-tablish their accurate and true nationality. That a whole nation, in spite of hundreds of thou-sands of its people, has unanimously agreed upon one point, should be regarded as an argu-ment of the irst order when all the Afghans living in India, Kabul, Qandhar and other fron-tier regions, call themselves Israel, it will be sheer foolishness to throw and deny unneces-sarily their ancient, accepted truths. In the scru-tiny of nations, it should be regarded as a suf i-cient and sound proof that the well-known events current among a nation regarding its lin-eage and descent, are accepted by its people. And in such matters there can be no bigger proof than that a na-tion, notwithstanding its huge brotherhood and wide-spread inter-marriages, should agree and concur on one statement; and if this argument be not re-garded as worthy of con idence and reliable, then, in this age, all the nations of Muslims, for ex-ample, Sayyad, Qureshi, Mughal etc. will become proof-less and mere verbal claims. But it will be a great mistake on our part if we should brush aside and reject all those clear and successively re-peated facts which a nation has in its possession as an historical record, regarding the accurate identity of its nationality. It may however, be possible that in the description of its descent and ancestry, a nation may draw a long bow and indulge in exaggeration. But we should not, on our part, throw the real thing overboard because of these exaggerated ac-counts or other incoherent statements. The proper course will be that all those accretions which seem to be useless and redundant indeed, be expunged and erased, and the real essence of the matter, agreed upon by the nation with con-sensus, be accepted. Every investigator or re-search scholar, in this way, will have to admit that the Afghans are, as a matter of fact, Bani Israel (Children of Israel). Every one, keeping himself as well as his nation in view, should ponder over and think that if a person on the

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November 2014

3

The Light another factor that the Khaiber fort, built by the Afghans, is undoubtedly to commemorate the memory of that Khaiber which is in Arabia, and was inhabited by the Jews.

The third factor is that the physical features of the Afghans resemble very much those of the Isra-elites. If some Jews were made to stand in line with the Afghans, I think, the cast of their counte-nance, their aquiline nose and oval-shaped face will bear so close resemblance that they will de-clare automatically that all these people belong to the same family.

The fourth factor is the Afghans’ dress. Their long shirt and gowns are of the same Israelite fashion and form a mention of which has also been made in the Gospel.

The ifth factor is such customs and ceremo-nies of theirs which are very much like those of the Jews; for instance, some of their tribes recog-nize no difference between betrothal and mar-riage, and women meet and mix with their iance s

without any reservation. The going about of Mary with her iance , Joseph, even before the consummation of marriage, is a strong evi-dence of this Jewish custom. But in some tribes of the Afghans of the frontier re-gions, the mixing of women with their betrothed men is unrestricted and free to such an extent that conception sometimes takes place even before marriage, which they

turn off in jest, for, like the Jews, these people also look upon and regard betrothal as a kind of mar-riage in which dowry is also determined and de-cided at irst.

The sixth factor bearing upon the Afghans be-ing the descendants of Israel is their own positive af irmation that Qais (Kish) was their great pro-genitor; for, a mention of Kish is found in a book of the sacred scriptures of the Jews, entitled I Chron-icles, and he was an Israelite. This fact leads us to the conclusion that either there was another Kish (Qais) among the progeny of the irst Kish, who might have embraced Islam, or the one who be-came Muslim, might have some other name, but he might have been among the children of Kish, and later on, through an error of remembrance, came to be known by the name Kish. Anyhow, the

efface national history and succession. Just see, our Holy Prophet (peace and the blessings of God be upon him) accepted not as correct the genea-logical tree of the Quraish which they carry back to reach Ishmael, and excepting a few generations, rejected the rest of it as the liars’ falsehood. But it follows not from this that the Quraish are not the Children of Ishmael. Furthermore, when the Quraish who were so avaricious and tenacious in the matter of genealogy could not remember their lineage in accurate detail, it should make no differ-ence in the real object of the Afghans, addicted generally to a life of indifference and want of ear-nestness, should have committed any mistake in the statement of their genealogy in detail, or even intermixed it with some falsehood. And the Torah, too has not been preserved in its pristine purity that it may claim the authority of a decisive word. We have now come to know that the copies of the Torah which the Jews have differ greatly from those with the Christians. In short, this criticism and picking holes is not fair; and it is also incorrect that the Afghan names are not of the Hebrew form or fashion. Are not these names - Yusaf zye, Daood zye, Suleman zye, Hebrew names, or are they some-thing else? Of course, when these people migrated into other countries, their dia-lect and diction was also dyed in the colour of those countries. Just see, in our country the Sadaat (descendants of the Holy Prophet) have such names as Chanan Shah, Makhan Shah, Natthoo Shah, Mattoc Shah; then will they not be called Sayyads? Are these Arabic names? In brief, all this carping and criticism is senseless and shameful. How can we discountenance and deny the successively repeated professions of whole nation? What better and more convincing way than this for the recognition of reality, is there in our hands then that the nation itself whose identi-ty we wish to ascertain, has agreed upon this point unanimously.

Besides this, there are other factors also, point-ing clearly to the fact that these people are in real-ity the descendants of Israel; for example, Mount Solomon (Koh Suleiman) which had been at irst the abode of Afghans, shows clearly that this name has been given to this hill obviously to retain the memory of the ancient Israel relic. There is yet

November 2014

4 The Light

utterance of the term Kish from the lips of a na-tion which was illiterate and utterly ignorant of the Jewish scriptures, leads us to think that they had heard it from their forefathers, that Kish was their great progenitor. The text of I Chroni-cles reads thus: And Ner begat Kish and Kish begat Saul; and Saul begat Jonathan (9:39).

The seventh factor relates to their moral pe-culiarities which are much in evidence : their irascible temper, ickle-mindedness, sel ishness, tendency to kill and slay, roughness of manners, perversity, and other personal passions, mur-derous intentions, un-mannerliness, blockhead-edness and stupidity. All these are the very same qualities which have been said of the Jews in the Torah and other scriptures. And if you should open the Holy Quran, chapter The Cow, and begin to read the qualities, habits, deeds and moral conditions of the Jews, you will feel as if the moral conditions of the Afghans of the frontier regions are being described; and this opinion is so sound and correct and many an English scholar has also endorsed it. Bernier, when he wrote that the Muslim Kashmiris of Kashmir were also Bani Israel in reality, has quoted some British scholars in his support, stating all these people to be of the ten tribes who are said to have been lost in the eastern countries, and of whom it has been discovered in the present age that all of them, as a matter of fact, have got into the fold of Islam.

Now that so many arguments exist to show

decisively that the Afghans are the descendants

of lsrael, and that they have been themselves

hearing from their forefathers that they are Isra-

elites, and that all these things are well known

and famous facts current in their nation, it will

be gross injustice if we should as if through an

imperious ordinance, refuse to accept these

statements of theirs. We should just pause to

ponder over and think what argument of denial

have we in our hands to adduce against and re-

fute their arguments. It is a legal principle that

an old document of more than forty years of age

itself becomes the argument of its own correct-

ness and validity. So when the Afghans, like oth-

er nations that speak of their descents, af irm

that they have descended from Israel, why

should we fall out and quarrel, and for what

reason should we refuse to accept their asser-

tion? It should be remembered that it is not a

statement of one or two persons, but it is an ab-

solute asseveration of the whole nation, com-

prising millions of people who have been giving

this evidence generation after generation.

Muhammad (s) Part III

Prof. K. S. Ramakrishna Rao,

(Head of the Dept. of Philosophy, Govt. College for Women. University of Mysore, Mandya-571401 (Karnatika, India).

Re-printed from “Islam and Modern age”, Hydrabad, March 1978.

(continued from The Light October 2014)

The Arabs had a very strong tradition that one who can smite with the spear and can wield the sword would inherit. But Islam came as the defender of the weaker sex and entitled women to share the inheritance of their parents. It gave women, centuries ago right of owning property, yet it was only 12 centuries later , in 1881, that England, supposed to be the cradle of democra-cy adopted this institution of Islam and the act was called “the married woman act”, but centu-ries earlier, the Prophet of Islam had proclaimed that “Woman are twin halves of men. The rights of women are sacred. See that women main-tained rights granted to them.”

Islam is not directly concerned with political and economic systems, but indirectly and in so far as political and economic affairs in luence man’s conduct, it does lay down some very im-portant principles to govern economic life. Ac-cording to Prof. Massignon, it maintains the bal-ance between exaggerated opposites and has always in view the building of character which is the basis of civilization. This is secured by its law of inheritance, by an organized system of charity known as Zakat, and by regarding as ille-gal all anti-social practices in the economic ield like monopoly, usury, securing of predetermined unearned income and increments, cornering markets, creating monopolies, creating an arti i-cial scarcity of any commodity in order to force the prices to rise. Gambling is illegal. Contribu-tion to schools, to places of worship, hospitals, digging of wells, opening of orphanages are highest acts of virtue. Orphanages have sprung for the irst time, it is said, under the teaching of the prophet of Islam. The world owes its or-phanages to this prophet born an orphan. “Good all this” says Carlyle about Mohammad. “The natural voice of humanity, of pity and equity,

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The Light dwelling in the heart of this wild son of nature, speaks.”

A historian once said a great man should be judged by three tests: Was he found to be of true metel by his contemporaries ? Was he great enough to raise above the standards of his age ? Did he leave anything as permanent legacy to the world at large ? This list may be further ex-tended but all these three tests of greatness are eminently satis ied to the highest degree in case of prophet Mohammad. Some illustrations of the last two have already been mentioned.

The irst is: Was the Prophet of Islam found to be of true metel by his contemporaries?

Historical records show that all the contem-poraries of Mohammad both friends foes, acknowledged the sterling qualities, the spotless honesty, the noble virtues, the absolute sincerity and every trustworthiness of the apostle of Is-lam in all walks of life and in every sphere of human activity. Even the Jews and those who did not believe in his message, adopted him as the arbiter in their personal disputes by virtue of his perfect impartiality. Even those who did not be-lieve in his message were forced to say “O Mo-hammad, we do not call you a liar, but we deny him who has given you a book and inspired you with a message.” They thought he was one pos-sessed. They tried violence to cure him. But the best of them saw that a new light had dawned on him and they hastened him to seek the en-lightenment. It is a notable feature in the history of prophet of Islam that his nearest relation, his beloved cousin and his bosom friends, who know him most intimately, were thoroughly im-bued with the truth of his mission and were con-vinced of the genuineness of his divine inspira-tion. If these men and women, noble, intelligent, educated and intimately acquainted with his private life had perceived the slightest signs of deception, fraud, earthliness, or lack of faith in him, Mohammad’s moral hope of regeneration, spiritual awakening, and social reform would all have been foredoomed to a failure and whole edi ice would have crumbled to pieces in a mo-ment. On the contrary, we ind that devotion of his followers was such that he was voluntarily acknowledged as dictator of their lives. They braved for him persecutions and danger; they trusted, obeyed and honored him even in the most excruciating torture and severest mental agony caused by excommunication even unto death. Would this have been so, had they noticed the slightest backsliding in their master?

Read the history of the early converts to Is-lam, and every heart would melt at the sight of the brutal treatment of innocent Muslim men and women.

Sumayya, an innocent women, is cruelly torn into pieces with spears. An example is made of “Yassir whose legs are tied to two camels and the beast were are driven in opposite direc-tions”, Khabbab bin Arth is made lie down on the bed of burning coal with the brutal legs of their merciless tyrant on his breast so that he may not move and this makes even the fat beneath his skin melt. “Khabban bin Adi is put to death in a cruel manner by mutilation and cutting off his lesh piece-meal.” In the midst of his tortures, being asked wheather he did not wish Moham-mad in his place while he was in his house with his family, the sufferer cried out that he was gladly prepared to sacri ice himself his family and children and why was it that these sons and daughters of Islam not only surrendered to their prophet their allegiance but also made a gift of their hearts and souls to their master? Is not the intense faith and conviction on part of immedi-ate followers of Mohammad, the noblest testi-mony to his sincerity and to his utter self-absorption in his appointed task?

And these men were not of low station or inferior mental caliber. Around him in quite ear-ly days, gathered what was best and noblest in Mecca, its lower and cream, men of position, rank, wealth and culture, and from his own kith and kin, those who knew all about his life. All the irst four Caliphs, with their towering per-sonalities, were converts of this period.

The Encyclopedia Brittanica says that “Mohammad is the most successful of all Proph-ets and religious personalities”.

But the success was not the result of mere accident. It was not a hit of fortune. It was a recognition of fact that he was found to be true mettle by his contemporaries. It was the result of his admirable and all compelling personality.

The personality of Mohammad! It is most dif icult to get into the truth of it. Only a glimpse of it I can catch. What a dramatic succession of picturesque scenes. There is Mohammad the Prophet, there is Mohammad the General; Mo-hammad the King; Mohammad the Warrior; Mo-hammad the Businessman; Mohammad the Preacher; Mohammad the Philosopher; Moham-mad the Statesman; Mohammad the Orator; Mo-hammad the reformer; Mohammad the Refuge

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of orphans; Mohammad the Protector of slaves; Mohammad the Emancipator of women; Mo-hammad the Law-giver; Mohammad the Judge; Mohammad the Saint.

And in all these magni icent roles, in all these departments of human activities, he is like, a hero.

Orphanhood is extreme of helplessness and his life upon this earth began with it; Kingship is the height of the material power and it ended with it. From an orphan boy to a persecuted ref-ugee and then to an overlord, spiritual as well as temporal, of a whole nation and Arbiter of its destinies, with all its trials and temptations, with all its vicissitudes and changes, its lights and shades, its up and downs, its terror and splendor, he has stood the ire of the world and came out unscathed to serve as a model in every face of life. His achievements are not limited to one aspect of life, but cover the whole ield of human conditions.

If for instance, greatness consist in the puri- ication of a nation, steeped in barbarism and immersed in absolute moral darkness, that dy-namic personality who has transformed, re ined and uplifted an entire nation, sunk low as the Arabs were, and made them the torch-bearer of civilization and learning, has every claim to greatness. If greatness lies in unifying the dis-cordant elements of society by ties of brother-hood and charity, the prophet of the desert has got every title to this distinction. If greatness consists in reforming those warped in degrading and blind superstition and pernicious practices of every kind, the prophet of Islam has wiped out superstitions and irrational fear from the hearts of millions. If it lies in displaying high morals, Mohammad has been admitted by friend and foe as Al Amin, or the faithful. If a conqueror is a great man, here is a person who rose from helpless orphan and an humble creature to be the ruler of Arabia, the equal to Chosroes and Caesars, one who founded great empire that has survived all these 14 centuries. If the devotion that a leader commands is the criterion of great-ness, the prophet’s name even today exerts a magic charm over millions of souls, spread all over the world.

He had not studied philosophy in the school of Athens of Rome, Persia, India, or China. Yet, He could proclaim the highest truths of eternal value to mankind. Illiterate himself, he could yet speak with an eloquence and fervor which

moved men to tears, to tears of ecstasy. Born an orphan blessed with no worldly goods, he was loved by all. He had studied at no military academy; yet he could organize his forces against tremendous odds and gained victories through the moral forces which he marshaled. Gifted men with genius for preaching are rare. Descartes included the perfect preacher among the rarest kind in the world. Hitler in his Mein Kamp has expressed a similar view. He says “A great theorist is seldom a great leader. An Agitator is more likely to posses these qualities. He will always be a great leader. For leadership means ability to move masses of men. The talents to pro-duce ideas has nothing in common with capacity for leadership.” “But”, he says, “The Union of theo-rists, organizer and leader in one man, is the rarest phenomenon on this earth; Therein consists great-ness.”

Jews in Early Islam

Inconvenient History for Zionists

By Z A Rahman

(Source: www.islam21c.com)

Islam is a religion of mercy to all people, both Muslims and non-Muslims. The Messenger of Allah was described as being a mercy in the Qur’an due to the message he brought for humanity:

“And We have not sent you but as a mercy to all the worlds.” (Quran 21:107)

When a person analyses the legislations of Is-lam with an open mind, the mercy mentioned in this verse will de initely become apparent. One of the aspects constituting an epitome of this Mercy is the way the legislations of Islam deal with people of other faiths. The tolerant attitude of Islam towards non-Muslims, whether they be those residing in their own countries or within the Muslim lands, can be clearly seen through a study of history. Muslim jurists use the term ‘Dhimmi’ or ‘Ahl ul-Dhimma’ – ‘People of the Covenant’ to refer to non-Muslim res-idents and means a treaty of protection for non-Muslims living in Muslim territory.

At a time in which we see the Zionist state of Israel committing atrocities against the Muslims in Gaza in the name of defending the ’Jewish state‘, it is worth reminding the Zionists and their sympa-thisers how the Jewish people were treated as Peo-ple of the Covenant throughout the history of Islam.

During the life of the Prophet (s)

When the Messenger of Allah (s) migrated from

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The Light Makkah to Madinah, there was a small commu-nity (three tribes) of Jews there, with Arab com-munities constituting the majority of the popu-lation that resided there. The immediate result of the Prophet’s migration to Madinah was peace and unity between the communities of Aws and Khazraj. The Prophet, motivated by the general welfare of citizens of Madinah, decided to offer his services to the remaining communi-ties including the Jews and as such, the Treaty between Muslims, non-Muslim Arabs and Jews of Madinah was put in writing and rati ied by all parties. The document referred to the Messen-ger of Allah (s) as the Prophet and Messenger of God but it was understood that the Jews did not have to recognise him as such for their own reli-gious reasons. The major parts of the document with respect to the Jews were:

“Whosoever among the Jews follows us shall have help and equality; they shall not be injured nor shall any enemy be aided against them…No separate peace will be made when the Believers are fighting in the way of Allah…The Believers shall avenge the blood of one another shed in the way of Allah…Whosoever kills a Believer wrong-fully shall be liable to retaliation; all the Believers shall be against him as one man and they are bound to take action against him.”

“The Jews shall contribute (to the cost of war) with the Believers so long as they are at war with a common enemy. The Jews of Banu Najjar, Banu al-Harith, Banu Sa’idah, Banu Jusham, Banu al-Aws, Banu Tha’labah, Jafnah, and Banu al-Shutaybah enjoy the same rights and privileges as the Jews of Banu Aws.”

“The Jews shall maintain their own religion and the Muslims theirs. Loyalty is a protection against treachery. The close friends of Jews are as themselves. None of them shall go out on a mili-tary expedition except with the permission of Mu-hammad, but he shall not be prevented from tak-ing revenge for a wound.”

“The Jews shall be responsible for their ex-penses and the Believers for theirs. Each, if at-tacked, shall come to the assistance of the oth-er.” (The Sealed Nectar: Biography of the Prophet by Al-Raheeq Al-Makhtum , p.394)

This document came to be known as the Sahifat al-Madinah ‘Constitution of the Islam-ic State of Madinah’. The historian Mark Graham states: “Muhammad’s brilliance lay in politics as well as spirituality. One of the most extraordinary events to take place during this time was the

drafting of the Covenant of Medina, what some consider to be the world’s first constitution. This amazingly foresighted document was a revolu-tionary step forward in civil government.” (How Islam Created the Modern World. Amana Publi-cations, 2006, p. 21.)

As for the Prophet’s treatment of the Jews in general, there are many examples that show his kindness to them. For example, a young Jewish boy used to serve the Prophet and he became sick, and so the Prophet went to visit him.(Bukhāri) It is also reported that a funeral of a

Jew passed before the Prophet (s). As a sign of respect, the Prophet stood up. As a result the Prophet was asked “Why did you stand up for a Jewish funeral?” The Prophet (s) replied, “Is it not a human soul?“.(Bukhāri) It should also be remembered that in order to tie civil bonds and to express his nearness to the Jews in his ances-try, the Prophet (s) married Sa iyyah bint Huyay (r), daughter of the chief of the Jewish tribe of Banu al-Nadīr. She was captured during the Bat-tle of Khaybar and as an honourable gesture showing the magnanimity of Islam, the Prophet freed and married her.

Rule of the Rightly Guided Caliphs

Modern welfare states provide social bene- its to their poor citizens, but arguably Islam preceded all nations in establishing social secu-rity services for Muslims as well as non-Muslims. Umar b. al-Khattāb (r) the second ca-liph of Islam, once passed by an old, blind man begging in front of a house. Umar asked him which religious community he belonged to. The man said he was Jewish. Umar then asked him, “What has brought you to this?” The old man said, “Do not ask me, poverty and old age.” Umar took the man to his own home, helped him from his personal money, and then ordered the head of the treasury, “You must look after this man and others like him. We have not treated him fairly. He should not have spent the best years of his life among us to ind misery in his old age.” Umar also relieved him and others in his situa-tion of paying theJizya (the tax non-Muslim sub-jects were required to pay for protection in the Muslims lands, similar in value to the alms obliged on the Muslims). (Ahkām Ahl al-Dhimmah by Ibn al-Qayyim, 1/38)

When Umar was handed the keys to Jerusa-lem, he guaranteed the rights of all faiths, in-cluding the Jews. On one occasion, some Mus-lims usurped a piece of land belonging to a Jew and then constructed on it a mosque. The justice

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8 The Light

Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore (UK)

The first Islamic Mission in the UK, established 1913 as the Woking Muslim Mission

Dar-us-Salaam, 15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, UK, HA0 4JQ

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of Umar and indeed Islam is such that he or-dered the demolition of the mosque and the res-toration of the land to its Jewish owner. Dr Ha-midullāh in his book ‘The Status of non-Muslims in Islam’ says that a Lebanese Christian scholar, Professor Cardahi, wrote in 1933 about this land: “this house of the Bait al-Yahudi, still exists and is well-known.” (http://muslimcanada.org/ch12hamid.html)

Another example of the justice of Islam in its treatment of the Jewish community is found in the time of the fourth caliph of Islam. Once, a dispute arose between Alī b. Abī Tālib (r), when he was the Caliph, and a Jewish man. Both par-ties took their disputes to a judge, Shurayh al-Kindi. Shurayh relates the details of what hap-pened:

“Alī found he was miss-

ing his coat of mail, so he

went back to Kūfa and

found it in the hands of a

Jewish man who was selling

it in the market. He said, “O

Jew, that coat of mail is

mine! I did not give it away

or sell it!” The Jew respond-

ed “It is mine. It is in my

possession.” Alī said, “We

will have the judge rule on

this for us.” So they came to

me and Alī sat next to me

and said, “That coat of

mail is mine; I did not give

it away or sell it.” The Jew

sat in front of me and

said, “That is my coat of mail. It is in my possession.”

I asked, ‘O Commander of the Faithful (Alī), do you

have any proof?’ “Yes” Alī said. “My son Hasan and

Qanbarah can testify that it is my coat of mail.” I said,

“Commander of the Faithful, the testimony of a son in his

father’s favour is not admissible in court.” On seeing this,

the Jewish man said, “The Commander of the Faithful (i.e.

Alī) takes me before his own judge and the judge rules in

my favour against him! I bear witness that no one de-

serves worship except God and that Muhammad is His

Messenger.” The Jewish man accepted Islam, and then

addressed Alī saying: “The coat of armour is yours, Com-

mander of the Faithful. You dropped it at night and I

found it.”

The period of Islamic Empires

A further example of how the Jews as People of the Covenant were treated is found in the statement of a famous classical scholar of Islam, Imām al-Awzā’ī in his letter to the Abbasid gov-ernor, Sālih b. ‘Alī b. Abdillāh when he writes, “They (Jews and Christians) are not slaves, so beware of changing their status after they have lived in freedom. They are free People of the Cove-nant.” Abu Ubayd al Amwaal p. 574 , 575. Zaydan, Dr. Abd al-Karim, ‘Ahkām al-Dhimmiyīn wal-Musta’minīn,’ p. 77.) Acknowledging this fact, Ron Landau wrote:

“In contrast to the Christian Empire, which attempted to impose Christianity on its sub-jects, the Arabs extend-ed recognition to reli-gious minorities, and accepted their presence. Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians were known to them as the People of the Covenant; in other words, the na-

tions who enjoyed a protected status.”[9]

We have seen in this

article how the Jews

were acknowledged as people of the book and a

people upon whom Allah had bestowed many

favours in the past, and the interaction of the

Muslim community with them was in accord-

ance with this belief. We have seen how the

Messenger of Allah (s) and his companions just-

ly dealt with them. In part 2 of this article, we

will explore how the Muslims dealt with the

Jews when they were a global power in the age

of empires.

Hazrat Ameer opening the proceedings to celebrate 90 years of building of the Berlin Mosque.