A FORGOTTEN COVENANT
“This is a message
from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near
and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my
followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold
out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be
on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks
from their monasteries.
No one is to destroy a
house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the
Muslims’ houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant
and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter
against all that they hate.
No one is to force
them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them.
If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without
her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.
Their churches are to
be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the
sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the
covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).”*
Such were the
memorable words of Prophet Muhammad 
in the year 628 CE, when he granted
this historic document, also known as the Charter of Privileges, to the monks
of St. Catherine Monastery in Mt. Sinai. It consisted of several clauses
covering all aspects of human rights including such topics as the protection of
Christians living under Islamic rule, freedom of worship and movement, freedom
to appoint their own judges and to own and maintain their property, exemption from
military service, and the right to protection in war.
in the year 628 CE, when he granted
this historic document, also known as the Charter of Privileges, to the monks
of St. Catherine Monastery in Mt. Sinai. It consisted of several clauses
covering all aspects of human rights including such topics as the protection of
Christians living under Islamic rule, freedom of worship and movement, freedom
to appoint their own judges and to own and maintain their property, exemption from
military service, and the right to protection in war.
In the spirit of this
and numerous other authoritative Islamic texts, one wonders why contemporary
policy makers in the West insist on supporting the secular, corrupt, and
authoritarian regimes of the predominantly Muslim nations. What is the wisdom
of allocating billions of dollars to overthrow, through well-crafted public and
covert operations, the popularly and legitimately elected Muslim governments?
Have the West’s ‘experts‘ on the Middle East, the Orientalists and the
national security advisers hijacked Western political institutions as the
latter hijacked the legitimate government of, for example, Iran’s democratic
Mosadeq regime, or the Algerian peaceful election that guaranteed Muslim
control, and many more cases? Should the predominantly Christian West fear and
fight genuine Islamic regimes or should it change its outlook by trusting those
who uphold God’s Words and Muhammad’s commands above secular and cultural
values?
commands above secular and cultural
values?
*The English
translated text of the Charter of Privileges was extracted from the Book
‘Muslim History: 570 – 1950 C.E.’ by Dr. A. Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq, ZMD
Corporation. P.O. Box 8231 – Gaithersburg, MD 20898-8231 – Copyright Akram
Zahoor 2000. P. 167.
Source:
IslamiCity
http://www.islamicity.org/2971/a-forgotten-covenant/
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