how Muslims should treat the unbelievers?

Name of QuestionerMaynard   – United KingdomTitleMuslims & Non-Muslims: An Inevitable Clash?Date29/Jun/2009 QuestionWhat is the difference between the world of believers and disbelievers and how Muslims should treat the unbelievers?TopicInterfaith Issues, Virtues, Islamic CreedName of CounselorShahul HameedAnswer

Salam, Maynard.

Thank you for your question.

How Islam distinguishes between Muslims and non-Muslims is based on clear injunctions given in the Noble Quran, which Muslims believe is the wordof God and the example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and be upon him).

The Quran, and the Sunnah (the Prophet's deeds and sayings) distinguish Muslims from non-Muslims on the basis of their religious faith and practice.

As Almighty Allah (God) has appointed the human race as His ambassador (khalifah) on earth, He has given us faculties like reason, imagination and discretion. He has given us freedom too; and He sent down His Guidance to help us to abide by His laws, so that we do not go astray by misusing our freedom.

Yet all humans do not choose to follow Allah's guidance; and consequently humanity is divided into two camps: Those who follow Allah's guidance and lead a life of submission to His laws (i.e. Muslims); and those who reject Allah's guidance and follow other ways (i.e. non-Muslims).

Muslims believe that a day will come on which Almighty Allah will judge all humans as to who followed His guidance and who did not. And on that basis He would reward them or punish them in the hereafter.

Our concern in this answer is how Muslims should treat non-Muslims in this life, according to the teachings of Islam.

First, Islam teaches that all humans, being the children of Adam, are equal. There is no question of a Muslim — that is, if he or she is a real Muslim — feeling any sense of superiority over others on the basis of their race, tribe, color, nationality, or language. The Prophet said:

"All of you are from Adam, and Adam was from the earth." (Abu Dawud)

Second, in the matter of religious faith and practice, Muslims must provide non-Muslims all the freedom required for their faith and practice. Muslims are taught that no coercion should be used in the matter of religious preaching. Allah in the Noble Quran commands:

* (Al-Baqarah 2: 256)

{Say, "The truth is from your Lord": Let him who will, believe; and let him who will, reject (it): …}* (Al-Kahf18:29)

The author of the well-known book, The Preaching of Islam, Sir Thomas Arnold — a European Christian scholar — wrote about early conversions from Christianity to Islam: 

"That force was not the determining factor in these conversions may be judged from the amicable relations that existed between the Christian and the Muslim Arabs. Muhammad himself had entered into treaty with several Christian tribes, promising them his protection and guaranteeing them the free exercise of their religion and to their clergy undisturbed enjoyment of their old rights and authority". (47-48)

He goes on to say:

"From the examples given above of the toleration extended towards the Christian Arabs by the victorious Muslims of the first century of the Hijrah and continued by succeeding generations, we may surely infer that those Christian tribes that did embrace Islam did so, of their own choice and free will". (51)

In Muslim history, the  jizyah (tribute) has been a terribly misunderstood tax the non-Muslims had to pay. In fact, this was a tax in lieu of "zakah", which the Muslims had to pay, or sometimes in lieu of military service obligatory for Muslims.

Thomas Arnold wrote:

"As stated above, the jizyah was levied on the able-bodied males, in lieu of the military service they would have been called upon to perform had they been Muslim men; and it is very noticeable that when any Christian people served in the Muslim army, they were exempted from the payment of this tax. Such was the case with the tribe of Al-Jurajimah, a Christian tribe in the neighborhood of Antioch, who made peace with the Muslims, promising them to be their allies and fight on their side in battle.." (The Preaching of Islam, 62)

The Muslim belief in the Oneness of God and the oneness of the origin of the humanity provides the firmest foundation for Islam's tolerance towards other religions.

In addition, it should be emphasized that Muslims are commanded to believe that all the prophets basically preached the same message of Islam (submission to God); and that all the previous scriptures, in their original form were revelations from Allah Almighty. Naturally, Muslims have got to be tolerant towards all the religions prior to Prophet Muhammad.

It is noteworthy that Judaism rejects prophets Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them), and Christianity rejects Prophet Muhammad. But Muslims accept as their own prophets, not only prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus, but also all other prophets mentioned in the scriptures of the Jews and the Christians.

Muslims also accept their scriptures — both the Old Testament and the New Testament too — as containing the word of God. Muslims are commanded not to differentiate between one prophet and another, but to respect and honor them all alike:

* (Aal `Imran 3:84)

And read the following verses addressed to Prophet Muhammad:

{To you We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety: so judge between them by what God has revealed, and follow not their vain desires, diverging from the Truth that has come to you. To each among you have we prescribed a law and an open way. If God had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He has given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to God; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute…}* (Al-Ma’idah 5:48)

Allah also said:

{If it had been your Lord's will, they would all have believed,- all who are on earth! Will you then compel mankind, against their will, to believe?} (Yunus 10:99)

The above declaration of inter-religious harmony is a thousand years older than the American Bill of Rights.

For centuries in Muslim-majority countries, Muslims and non-Muslims have been living as neighbors in peace; except for rare and exceptional problems created by invaders or Machiavellian politicians, who might have exploited the religious sentiments of people.

Today also, Islam is often distorted and caricatured by vested interests, for their nefarious purposes; and they are certainly using all means of propaganda to spread the idea that Islam is inimical to non-Muslims. But falsehood will certainly perish and truth will prevail.

I hope this answers your question. Please keep in touch.

Salam.

"about the weapons, the Christians and Jews were under the protection of muslims, and nothing would happen to them in this way."

You're talking about in theory. I'm talking about in practice.

There were occasional disturbances and attacks against Jews, even if Islam is completely against it, that is not the point.

"and part of Christians arabs were fighting in the Muslims army, and they were part of it, how they were not allowed to own weapons."

Obviously not inside the army, but outside, in every day life.

"but what I know that the Muslims who were protecting the church and keeping them safe, untill nowadays, the keys of church are kept by muslims familly in palestine"

You're talking about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

"can you explain to us, what is the world to come according to Judaism, to make us able to understand how you think and believe."

Non-Jews are bound by the 7 laws of Noah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Laws_of_Noah

By following them, they all have a part in the world to come.

What is this, the 'olam ha ba'? 

In the Messianic age, the righteous dead will be revived and the world will live in peace and prosperity.

Each of both is stupid wasting his time on other dickhead…

like a little puppy upset that neither is paying attention to him 

good  topic.very interesting discussion.

muslims treat unbelievers peacefully and mercefully.

here in Algeria  we have chinese workers .they are neither christians nor jews but  unbelievers.in spite of that .all people deal with them without any background.

we have many arguments that  we moslims are very tolerant  with unbelievers.

our Quran  instructed us to treat non moslims in good way.no impulsion to submit to Islam

our history presented  exciting exemples of tolerence with unbelievers.

many christians live in Labonan and Egypt and for centurie and without any conflict.

no jump up and down to tell lies oh.mr Fab

many christians live in Labonan and Egypt and for centurie and without any conflict.

Ask the Diaspora of Christian Lebanese living outside of Lebanon what they think about the Muslims. Don't forget that there was a civil war in the 70s between the two communities.

"everything has a reason, we have only to search for it."

Esau was an enemy of Jacob, and Amalek was one of his descendants. Passed down in the family was a hatred of Bnei Israel.

Through some crazy coincidence, generations later, Amalek and his descendants came out to meet the Israelites on their way to Eretz Israel and attacked them.

"I didn't know that Allah was protecting the Israelites, but allah was testing them if they keep going in the right path or not."

The children of Israel were led out of Egypt not by Moses, but by the power of the Allmighty through Moses. his prophet. Of course he was protecting them.

And as the Torah says, there was a great battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites where everytime Moses raised his hands, the Israelites were winning, when he lowered them, the Amalekites were winning. In the end, the Amalekites retreated.

The signs were to make the Israelites believe in him, but it was more than just that, the miracles filled a higher purpose as well: to bring the Israelites out, to keep them safe, and to make them accept the Torah and become his holy nation.

"some jews consider the Palestinians as the descendants of Amalek, and that may explain many thing, and why the Jews are doing against the palestinians."

Some Jews go way too far.

No, that is not mainstream Judaism to consider the Palestinians as Amalek and I certainly don't believe that.

However I do remember rabbis during the Gaza offensive referring to Hamas as Amalek. The thing to understand is that Jews refer to their enemies as Amalek, not entire nations.

There is no nation of Amalek today, and if there were, Jews would strictly speaking have the duty to kill them all.

There is no such sanction for mass murder against the Palestinians. 

"Amalikes are a race; came from south of Arabian Peninsula, and from this race, the Canaanites and Alomurien, and they moved to many other places, and even they lived in Egypt, and there was a king from Amalike there."

The only record that there is of Amalek is in the Hebrew Bible, or so I thought.

Then later I read that a famous Arab historian said openly that they existed. Amazing.

Anyway, you should also understand that Amalek is often considered symbolically by mainstream Judaism. That 'destroying Amalek' means doing 'mitzvot' (commandments) and rejecting evil. It doesn't nowadays mean going out and killing people.

"Amalikes are considered as from the first arabs.

and If you want to talk about the Ismailites, those are not the first arabs, and to understand that we have to talk alot, there are the true race of arabs, and there are poeple who became arabs later, and there is a difference here."

Most of the Amalekites were wiped out by bnei Israel, the few that remained joined some other nations. These other nations are not therefore all Amalek.

The Arabs are not Amalek and that's all there is to it.

@Matrix07:

I keep hearing this.

WHO committed the massacre? Go ahead and answer this question.

The Sabra and Shatila massacre (or Sabra and Chatila massacre; Arabic: مذبحة صبرا وشاتيلا‎ Maḏbaḥat Ṣabrā wa Shātīlā) (33°51′40.47″N 35°30′01.50″E / 33.8612417°N 35.500417°E / 33.8612417; 35.500417) was a massacre of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians carried out between September 16 and 18, 1982 by the Lebanese Forces Christian militia group. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF), in control of Beirut, surrounded Beirut's Palestinian refugee camps immediately after the assassination of Phalangist leader and president-elect Bachir Gemayel two days before, then allowed Lebanese Phalangist militiamen to enter two of these refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila. The exact number killed is disputed, with estimates ranging from 328 to 3,500.

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—

The IDF did nothing. At worst, they didn't stop it, but it was CHRISTIAN ARABS that killed these people.

I remember what Begin said in response:

Non-Jews kill non-Jews, and somehow the Jews are still blamed. 

Non-Jews kill non-Jews, and somehow the Jews are still blamed. 

somewhere, many many light years away, a great war is underway, with members of multiple alien races killing each other over some alien cultural slight that humans will never be able to comprehend. In millions of years when word of this war raeches our descendants here on Earth, someone will blame the Jews. 

"the only who has the right to have weapons, wouldbe the military, as the jews didn't have weapons, as the normal muslims did, as the muslims were under the attack of other, might the other was like them."

What you say makes sense, but the problem is some of the Muslims that did attack Jews had weapons, but were not apart of the military. The Jews had no means to defend themselves in this case.

why they're bound by those laws, if they don't believe in it, and also the jews don't apply it.

In the beginning there was Adam, straight down to Noah..

In the time of Noah, all of humanity was destroyed and he and his family and animals were saved.

From that point forward, all of humanity was descended from Noah, and in return to never let another flood destroy humanity again, Gd made a covenant ('Brit') with humanity that they should follow these laws. All of bnei Israel and the rest of humanity were bound by these commandments.

Then, when the Israelites were taken to Mount Sinai, they accepted upon themselves the Torah, and its 613 other commandments as well. This is the reason for the difference.

There is no proof that the Israelis commanded the Christians to kill anyone.

They had their own weapons, and their own vendetta against the Muslims. The war between Christians and Muslims had been going on before Israel was in Lebanon, and both sides had massacred and killed and raped each other in thousands of other incidence.

The only difference here is that it's a chance to blame Israel.