there
making his
earnest prayer to allah
that if you are not angry with me
oh allah
i don't care
meaning i don't care for this suffering
in the middle of all of that pain
physical and psychological
he says the angel
of god came to him
and he said for those arrogant people
if it's okay with you god has permitted
me
we could simply
crush them
between these two mountains
most humans perhaps would be thinking of
vengeance
it's part of human nature that need to
be controlled and the prophet showed us
how to control
and the prophet answered the angel
and he tells him
no
because i hope to allah
that out of these people's descendants
their children
there will be people who will worship
him
and that was very prophetic
this is exactly what happened later
and then he made a very noble statement
the same statement that is attributed to
another noble
prophet
who immediately came before prophet
muhammad peace be upon him
but about six centuries before prophet
jesus
peace be upon him which shows that what
these prophets were teaching is coming
from the same light not their copying
from one another they're all receiving
from the same source of inspiration from
god he said
oh god oh allah
forgive my people
for they know not
what they're doing
forgive my people
for they know not
what they're doing
the second encounter
with christians
in this early days even
when the persecution of muslim for their
faith including people who were murdered
because of their faith
became very hard and difficult to bear
you know what the prophet tells his
followers before even the major
migration to medina
he tells them
you go to abyssinia migrate there
and then he started to praise a
christian
he said there is a king there
christian king
in whose room
people are not wronged
so he's praising him not necessarily for
his belief because he doesn't share this
belief for example in trinity and so on
but he's praising one human quality in
that abyssinian christian king that he's
fair and just praising him
now one observation
that good relationship and courtesy
continued not only when muslims were
persecuted
when muslims even became powerful and
had their own states and base
in medina
later
we never hear
about the prophet muhammad peace be upon
him
ordering for example the invasion
of abyssinian
and that fly in the face of mistaken
interpretation that some even muslim may
have
that it is the duty of muslims to fight
all people in the world until they
accept islam or at least come under the
rule of islam
if this were true
the first implementer of that would have
been the prophet himself there is no
record whatsoever
and that shows as i'll be showing later
that when islam allowed fighting
either for self-defense or against
oppression
it was not meant
to include people who are not muslims
but co-existing peacefully with muslims
this is a clear lesson that we know
from the life of the prophet peace be
upon him
now we go to
his encounters
in medina
when muslims already migrated and he
migrated with them
to medina
here we find
multiple encounters with non-muslims
with the jews
with christians
and with idolatrous arabs
as a whole let's see how he dealt with
each of these situations and what kind
of developments took place
with jews
one of first three
major acts of the prophet peace be upon
him upon moving to medina
beside the body system the brotherhood
between the migrants and settlers
and also the building of the mosque as a
center not only for prayers for
everything for muslims
but the third act was
known as asahifa
which can be described as dr muhammad
hamid allah may allah bless his soul
call it
perhaps the first multicultural
multi-religious pluralistic constitution
in the world
that guaranteed equal rights for
everybody irrespective of their faith
because in that sahifa or constitution
that everybody was a signatory too
it was agreed that
muslims irrespective of their tribes
irrespective whether they are migrants
or settlers in medina
are to be regarded as one community
united by faith
the same equal treatment were given to
the various jewish tribes there were
various tribes also
that all jews in medina
irrespective of their tribes are to be
regarded also as one community of faith
united by their judaism
secondly
the sahih or constitution
guaranteed full rights and autonomy and
freedom of worship and belief to
everyone
jews and muslims and everyone else for
that matter
number three it was agreed also
that jews and muslims
should be co-defenders of medina should
any enemy attack medina
both are obligated as two communities to
stand together against any aggression
and never to help any enemy attacking
medina
fourthly
that no side should give refuge to
someone who committed a crime you don't
take refuse in one committee neither
can give refuge
okay
that was an amazing liberal kind of
treatment and approach and reaching out
to
what the quran called people of the book
applying to jews and christians
especially people of the book
because of this there's a great deal of
affinity
in
the relationship with muslims
both the three
normally called abrahamic religion
judaism christianity and islam
share the belief in the one god they
might see or believe in god in different
ways but they all believe in the oneness
of god
revelation scripture prophets
responsibility for our deeds moral code
for life
lots
there are differences but there are lots
of common themes also that
unite these people
and may may i add also one more point
that should be added
that all parties including the jewish
tribes in medina
all agreed
that the head of the whole community
would be the prophet so you have
autonomy
and the religious practice and
everything but to have any organized
society or a state the head was accepted
by all to be prophet muhammad peace be
upon him
now
what happened later unfortunately
is that especially three tribes one
tribe after the other
broke this agreement of peaceful
coexistence
and mutual respect
and engaged and hostilities towards
muslims in some degree or the other
the prophet in his position and
responsibility as the enforcer of the
law the constitution of medina to which
everybody signed
he had the responsibility to apply fair
punishment and proportionate punishment
to whoever committed an offending act
however
there are a number of observation about
the approach
and the fairness of the prophet in
dealing with the offending people
number one
it is impossible
to think
of any punitive action against those who
broke the law
as anti-semitism
it is silly to say anti-semitism
because prophet muhammad himself is a
pure semite he is a descendant of
ishmael
arabs
true arabs original arabs are more pure
semites than some jews who converted to
judaism later on who came from even
nansemite origins
so it's almost like saying antisemites
might
there's no reason
secondly
it is impossible to think
that this punitive action against
offenses
was
anti-jewishness
and why anti-jewishness if the quran
mentioned the name of prophet moses a
lot more than the name of prophet
muhammad himself
and the quran describes the original
torah taurah
giving to moses as one