By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam
18 January 2018
The Quran is a universal religion with a message for all the people:
(21:107) We
sent thee not, but as a Mercy for all the people.(12:104, 38:87, 68:52,
81:27) "This is no less than a Message to (all) the Worlds.
While the revelation
has a context and the Book can be best described as experiential
learning, the general principles that can be easily derived are
applicable to all people irrespective of their faith. The Quran provides
comprehensive guidance on waging war in the cause of Allah.
The Principles of war
that are derived by considering all the verses on fighting are clear and
free from ambiguity. None of the verses make an exception based on the
times and circumstances of the Prophetic mission of Muhammad (pbuh). The
principles are therefore eternal and based as these are on Divine
guidance and inspiration, are common to all the scriptures and may be
taken as guidance by all the people whether they follow the religion of
Islam or not. The clear, unambiguous principles are:
1. There is no
compulsion in religion. Any form of coercion in religion or prevention
from following one’s religion peacefully, constitutes persecution.
2. War is
mandated to end any kind of oppression against any people. The
oppression may be religious persecution or any other form of oppression.
The faith of the oppressor and the oppressed is immaterial.
3. Only a ruler
with a territory and people under his political authority can wage war.
Civil war is not permissible. And only people in the territory ruled by
such a ruler can participate in the war effort. People residing in
territory under the control of the oppressor, must migrate from that
territory first, if they wish to join the war effort against the
oppressor.
4. The only
justifiable cause for making war is to fight against the oppressors to
end oppression. There is no other justifiable cause.
The major battles
fought by the Prophet against the people of Mecca were against their
persecution of the Prophet and followers of the new faith of Islam.
After his people suffered torture, persecution and even killing for 13
years, the Prophet (pbuh) was forced to migrate to Medina. Even then,
the Meccans pursued them as is evident by the three major battles fought
near Medina with the last battle being the siege of Medina itself. The
Muslims eventually prevailed over their enemy. Surah Taubah describes
the judgment on the vanquished enemy. The General Principles underlying
the judgment on the vanquished religious persecutors are as follows:
1. Let
those vanquished persecutors who fought but never violated their
treaties, the freedom to practice their faith and live peacefully, if
they agree to become your willing subjects.
2. To those
who were treacherous and fought in violation of their treaties, provide
protection if they seek protection. Make them hear the word of God and
if they still refuse to accept your religion, escort them to a safe
place outside your territory.
3. Those
who were treacherous and fought in violation of their treaty, are
allowed 4 months of time in which they are free to migrate to a
neighbouring country or accept the victor’s faith. Those who remain
defiant at the end of the amnesty period may be killed.
As may be seen, the
rules are extremely generous. If it was a fair war without violation of
treaty, the vanquished simply must accept the new political authority
and become willing subjects and can live peacefully practicing his
faith. The treacherous violators of treaties can also save their lives
by accepting exile or the victor’s faith. These rules are in no way
unfair for a people who had fought to annihilate the religion of their
victors.
In any other war where
religion is not the issue, it is only treachery of the combatants alone
that is punishable by death or exile. The remaining people simply must
become willing subjects of the victors or may choose to migrate.
Treaties, Alliances and Relations with Other Nations/People
The Quran is
unequivocal in advocating peace treaties and treaties of mutual
cooperation with other people irrespective of the faith professed by
them even if they are your enemy:
(8:61) But if the
enemy incline towards peace, do thou (also) incline towards peace, and
trust in Allah: for He is One that heareth and knoweth (all things).
The Prophet had
treaties with several of the pagan tribes. The Quran attaches the utmost
importance to strict observance of treaties so much so, that even if
someone from amongst your own people, commit a crime punishable by
death, and then goes over to the people with whom you have a treaty, you
cannot touch him. Treaties covering extradition of such people were
perhaps not common in those days.
This is a hypothetical
situation but if a tribe from among the Mushrikin had said to the
Prophet “we do not understand your religion and do not accept it, but we
defend your right to practice and preach it, and would like to align
ourselves with you in your fight against your persecutors”, the Prophet
would have readily entered into a treaty of mutual alliance and
cooperation with such people. On being successful against the
persecutors, he would have given such an ally a place of honour in the
new polity irrespective of whether they accepted Islam. Going by the
message of the Quran, such people would have been blessed by Allah with
faith in Him, eventually. We can therefore assert the following:
In Islam, the other
is the Kafir, but they are not the non-Muslims but the unjust and the
oppressors who could be professing any faith including Islam. The cause
of Allah, identified from the Quran, is to end all injustice and
oppression, and all those who stand up for justice and fight against
oppression are from “the community of God” and the Muslims must form an “Ummat-e-Wahida” or a united front with all such people to end injustice and oppression in the world.
The God of Islam is the God of all the people and is not the parochial God of only the Muslims in our theology for Allah says:
“Nay,-whoever submits His whole
self to Allah (by whatever name) and is a doer of good,- He will get his
reward with his Lord; on such shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve”
(2:112).
The Muslim of the Quran, is therefore
simply anyone who submits to God (by whatever name), and is a doer of
good deeds. There are therefore only two kinds of people - those who
stand for justice and against oppression are the friends and helpers of
God and the oppressors are the enemies of humanity and of God. This is
the Universal Message of the Quran.
The Related Articles Are:
1. The Story of the Prophetic Mission of Muhammad (Pbuh) In the Qu’ran (Part 4): The Medinian Period
Naseer Ahmed is an
Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant
after having served in both the Public and Private sector in
responsible positions for over three decades. He is a frequent
contributor to NewAgeIslam.com
7:20 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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