On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:31:34 EST, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > In a message dated 1/21/2005 2:25:40 P.M. Central Standard Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > Secondly, the people being > protected would also definitely include the non-Muslims who were > members of the community. (That's what the jizya is for to begin > with). > Really? And which of these traditional jurists has written anything about > jihad in defense of non-believers? Can you post something from > them?_
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR26.6/elfadl.html The other major issue on the point of tolerance in Islam is that of the poll tax (jizyah) imposed on the People of Book (Christians and Jews) who live in Muslim territory. When the Qur'an was revealed, it was common inside and outside of Arabia to levy poll taxes against alien groups. Building upon the historical practice, classical Muslim jurists argued that the poll tax is money collected by the Islamic polity from non-Muslims in return for the protection of the Muslim state. If the Muslim state was incapable of extending such protection to non-Muslims, it was not supposed to levy a poll tax. In fact, 'Umar (r. 13-23/634-644), the second Rightly-Guided Caliph and close companion of the Prophet, returned the poll tax to an Arab Christian tribe that he was incapable of protecting from Byzantine aggression. [end quote] The following site has anumber of different passages. Remember that "dhimmi" is a non-Muslim under the protection of the Muslim state. http://www.bismikaallahuma.org/History/jizya-islam.htm When Khalid Ibn Al-Walid conquered Damascus, he wrote a similar treaty to its people. "In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate and Most Gracious. This is the covenant granted by Khalid Ibn Al-Walid to the people of Damascus if he enters it. They will be secure regarding their lives, property and churches. The fence of the city may not be demolished and no house owned by them may be dispossessed or inhibited. This is the covenant of Allah and the dhimma of His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, the Caliphs and the believers. They are to be well-treated conditional upon their payment of jizya."[19] 'Abada Ibn Al-Samit records these civilized features of jizya in Islam when depicting the Islamic stance vis-Ã-vis Al-Muqawqas, the king of the Copts: "Either to embrace Islam...if you and your companions accept this, you'll have attained the happiness of both this life and the after-life and we will not fight you and will never injure you or aggress you. However if you refuse, you have to pay jizya. Pay us the jizya and we will agree on a sum satisfactory to both of us to be collected every year so long as we and you remain. Thus we will defend you and fight your enemies or those who violate your lands, lives and property and we will undertake this duty so long as you are in our dhimma and so long as a covenant is binding on us towards you..."[20] Again it is noticeable that the Muslim sacrifices his life to protect the people of jizya and their property "We will defend youâ" In maintenance and protection of a dhimmi's property, Shari'a does not differentiate between a dhimmi's property and a Muslim's property. So stealing a dhimmi's property is punished for by amputation even if it were a Muslim's hand. Al-Qurtubi says: "A dhimmis' life is perpetually inviolable and so is a Muslim's life and both have become people of the House of Islam. The evidence of this is that a Muslim's hand is amputated if he steals a dhimmi's property. Therefore, a dhimm's life would by analogy be as inviolable as a Muslim's life as property derives its inviolability from the inviolability of its owner."[30] Al-Mawardi says: "And he -â an Imam -- is bound to ensure two rights for them; first, to save and spare their lives and second, to protect them so that they would be secure by being spared and guarded by being protected."[31] Al-Nawawi said: "We must spare their lives and indemnify them against any damage caused by us to their lives and property. We are also committed to defend them against the people of war."[32] Muslim jurisprudents reiterated this concept. Ibn Al-Najar Al-Hanbali says: "An Imam must protect the people of dhimma, deter those who injure them and defend them against those who seek to harm them."[33] When the Mongolian general Qatloushah invaded Damascus in the early eighth century Hijri and imprisoned Muslims as well as Christian and Jewish dhimmis, Imam Ibn Taimiyyah went to him with an august of scholars claiming the release of the prisoners. The general agreed on releasing the Muslims exclusively. Sheikh-ul-Islam, then replied: "All prisoners including Jews and Christians who are in our dhimma must be released and we will never let any prisoner with you including Muslims and dhimmis. Dhimmis are equal to Muslims as regards rights and duties." So the Mongolian general released them all.[34] Al-Qarafi quotes Imam Ibn Hazm who in turn accounts for Muslims' unprecedented consensus on the following: "We are obliged to fight people of war who seek a dhimmi with weapons and we must sacrifice our lives to this end in order to protect people in the dhimma of Allah Almighty and the dhimma of His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, as handing a dhimmi over without such struggle and sacrifice is an omission of the dhimma covenant."[35 [end quote] Peace Gilberto "My people are hydroponic" __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:archive@mail-archive.com To unsubscribe, send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, use subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
