First published on: Jews of Madina

Those who think that disavowal of the distorted religion of the Jews necessitates mistreating them and taking away their rights are mistaken. Prophet Muhammad instructed us to adhere to his guidance, as he said: “You must adhere to my Sunnah (i.e prophetic application of God’s orders and teachings).”; his teachings and his Sunnah show us the best example and guide us to the best of manners, especially in his interactions (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) with the followers of other religions.

Firstly, the Prophet acknowledged the rights of the Jews and Christians, and accepted the presence of the Jews in Madinah and wrote in the constitution of Madinah: “The Jews of Banu ‘Awf are one community with the believers”. He also guaranteed to them all kinds of rights. For example:

The right for life: so he did not execute any Jew except one who committed an act of treachery and betrayal.


The right to choose one’s religion: as he allowed them to carry on following their religion, and he did not force anyone to become Muslim, acting in accordance with the words of Allah, may He be glorified and exalted (interpretation of the meaning): “There is no compulsion in religion” [al-Baqarah 2:256]. He wrote in the constitution of Madinah: “The Jews have their religion and the Muslims have theirs…”


The right to own property: He did not confiscate the property of any one of them; rather the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) approved of the Muslims doing business with them.


The right for protection and defense: It says in the constitution of Madinah: “The Jews must bear their expenses (in war) and the Muslims their expenses. Each must help the other against anyone who attacks the people of this document.”


The right of fair treatment and standing up against wrongdoing committed against anyone: This is affirmed in the constitution of Madinah in which it says: “To the Jew who follows us belong help and support. He will not be wronged nor shall his enemies be aided.”.


The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was fair in passing judgements, even if it was not in the favor of the Muslims. When the people of Khaybar killed ‘Abdullah ibn Sahl, the Prophet did not decide that they had to pay the diyah (compensation), and he did not punish them for their crime, because there was no clear evidence against them. The Prophet even paid his compensation from the wealth of the Muslims. The story is in al-Bukhaari (6769) and Muslim (1669). When al-Ash‘ath ibn Qays and a Jewish man referred a dispute to the Prophet concerning some land in Yemen, and al-Ash‘ath did not have any proof, the Prophet decided that the land belonged to the Jew, on the basis of his oath, as it says in al-Bukhaari and Muslim.


Those who think that disavowal of the distorted religion of the Jews necessitates mistreating them and taking away their rights are mistaken. Prophet Muhammad instructed us to adhere to his guidance, as he said: “You must adhere to my Sunnah (i.e prophetic application to God orders and teachings).” , his teachings and his Sunnah show us the best example and guide us to the best of manners, especially in his interactions (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) with the followers of other religions.

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Secondly, the Prophet treated all people well, including Jews. Allah (The One Creator of heavens and earth), enjoined fairness, kindness, good treatment and rendering back trusts with the Jews and others, as He, may He be glorified, said:

Allah does not forbid you to deal justly and kindly with those who fought not against you on account of religion and did not drive you out of your homes. Verily, Allah loves those who deal with equity”. quran.com/60/8

There are a lot of examples in this regard, he used to visit their sick.

It was narrated by Anas ibn Maalik that a Jewish young man used to serve the Prophet and he felt sick. The Prophet came to visit him. He sat by his head and said: “Become Muslim.” The boy looked at his father, who was also by his head, and his father said to him: Obey Abu’l-Qaasim (i.e. a nickname of the prophet that means father of al-Qaasim; the prophet’s son who died young). So the young man became Muslim, and the Prophet left, saying, “Praise be to Allah Who have saved him from the Fire.”. [Al-Bukhaari 1356]

He used to accept their gifts. It was narrated by Anas ibn Maalik that a Jewish woman brought some poisoned mutton to the Prophet and he ate some of it. The Prophet used to forgive their mistreatment, and he told the people not to kill the woman, who had put the poison in the mutton. In the rest of the narration mentioned above it says: she was brought to the Messenger of Allah and he asked her about that. She said: I wanted to kill him. He said: “Allah will never give you the power to do that.” Or he said: “to me.” They said: Shall we kill her? He said: “No.” [Al-Bukhaari (2617) and Muslim (2190)]

In fact, this accident also was told by Abu Hurayrah in Saheeh al-Bukhaari (3169) it says that this was done with the knowledge of the Jews and that they admitted that they had tried to kill him with poison. Yet despite that the Prophet -blessings and peace be upon him- did not issue orders that revenge be taken on his behalf, but after that he executed her for the death of the prophet companion who had been with him and had eaten some of the poisoned mutton; his name was Bishr ibn al-Bara’.

On the other hand, the messenger did not allow the Jews to transgress the sacred limits of the Muslims, or to persist in that. He would punish anyone who transgressed against the Muslims, wronged them or overstepped the mark in doing so. When some of the Jews of Banu Qaynuqaa‘ harassed a Muslim woman in the marketplace and did a trick to expose her body, and they challenged the Prophet to fight, saying: “O Muhammad, do not be deceived by the fact that you killed some of Quraysh, for they were unskilled and did not know how to fight; but if you fight us, you will find out that we are real men” [1] – the Prophet confronted them and expelled them from the city (Al-Madinah). That happened when the trouble caused by the Jew Ka‘b ibn Ashraf to the Muslims became grave and he began to impugn their honour and say things about their women in his poems, and he travelled to Makkah to spur the leaders of Quraysh against the Muslims, the Prophet -blessings and peace of Allah be upon him- issued orders to kill him. [2]

To sum up, It is the wisdom of  Islam in dealing with the Jews . These are some of the treatment between the prophet and the jews of madinah, which mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah.

Believing in Torah and Gospel is one of the faith pillars in Islam, protecting Jews and Christian rights is in the Shariah law essentials, with no doubt that Shariah law also guarantees justice over them and even over Muslims in case of wrong behavior, it is worthy of mentioning that the word “Ahlu-Dhimmah” that’s called for Christian and Jews in Islam translated sometimes as “The Protected” as they are in Islam, and they are in most of the 50 Muslim countries worldwide.

References:

[1] Narrated and classed as hasan by Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Baari (7/332)

[2] This is mentioned in a lengthy story of events that occurred in Rabee‘ al-Awwal 3 AH, which was narrated by al-Bukhaari  and Muslim .