The text of the Covenant of Omar
Age requirements as set out in the interpretation of the Koran by Ibn
Katheer Repentance Verse 5
Author: Ismail bin Omar bin Abu al-Qurashi many redemption
The author's death 774
The Qur'anic foundation for this pact is seen as being Sura 9:29, which
states, "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold
that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor
acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the
Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves
subdued."
That came on the interpretation of Repentance Verse 5: "When the sacred
months and then kill the polytheists where did you find them and take them
and count them and wait for them each observatory if they repent and
establish worship and pay the zakat, then leave their way Allah is
Forgiving, Merciful."
They spoke on condition of the faithful Omar Bin Al Khattab may Allah be
pleased with him those conditions known to humiliate them and Allaah caused
the Thakaarham and that which was narrated by the Imams of the novel to
maintain Abdul Rahman bin sheep-Ash'ari said: I wrote to Omar Bin Al Khattab
may Allah be pleased with him, while the benefit of the people of the
Christians of the Levant
This
book by Abdullah Omar
of the faithful
of the
city as well as
Christians, as well as
you what
you gave us
Salnakm
security for
ourselves and
Dhirarina
and our money
and the people of
our religion
and our condition
on ourselves
that
you
In the name of allah, the Merciful and Compassionate. This is a
letter to the servant of Allah Umar [ibn al-Khattab], Commander of the Faithful, from the
Christians of such-and-such a city. When you came against us, we asked you
for safe-conduct (aman) for ourselves, our descendants, our
property, and the people of our community, and we undertook the following
obligations toward you
We heard from Abd al-Rahman ibn Ghanam [died 697 A.D.] as follows:
When Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, accorded a peace to
the Christians of Syria, we wrote to him as follows:
In the name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate. This is a letter to
the servant of Allah Umar [ibn al-Khattab], Commander of the Faithful, from
the Christians of such-and-such a city. When you came against us, we asked
you for safe-conduct (aman) for ourselves, our descendants, our property,
and the people of our community, and we undertook the following obligations
toward you:
We shall not build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries,
Churches, convents, or monks' cells, nor shall we repair, by day or by
night, such of them as fall in ruins or are situated in the quarters of the
Muslims.
We shall keep our gates wide open for passersby and travelers. We shall give
board and lodging to all Muslims who pass our way for three days.
We shall not give shelter in our churches or in our dwellings to any spy,
nor bide him from the Muslims.
We shall not teach the Qur'an to our children.
We shall not manifest our religion publicly nor convert anyone to it. We
shall not prevent any of our kin from entering Islam if they wish it.
We shall show respect toward the Muslims, and we shall rise from our seats
when they wish to sit.
We shall not seek to resemble the Muslims by imitating any of their
garments, the qalansuwa, the turban, footwear, or the parting of the hair.
We shall not speak as they do, nor shall we adopt their kunyas.
We shall not mount on saddles, nor shall we gird swords nor bear any kind of
arms nor carry them on our- persons.
.
We shall not sell fermented drinks.
We shall clip the fronts of our heads.
We shall always dress in the same way wherever we may be, and we shall bind
the zunar round our waists
We shall not display our crosses or our books in the roads or markets of the
Muslims.
We shall use only clappers in our churches very softly. We shall not raise
our voices when following our dead.
We shall not show lights on any of the roads of the Muslims or in their
markets. We shall not bury our dead near the Muslims.
We shall not take slaves who have been allotted to Muslims.
We shall not build houses overtopping the houses of the Muslims.
(When I brought the letter to Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, he added,
"We shall not strike a Muslim.")
We accept these conditions for ourselves and for the people of our
community, and in return we receive safe-conduct.
If we in any way violate these undertakings for which we ourselves stand
surety, we forfeit our covenant [dhimma], and we become liable to the
penalties for contumacy and sedition.
Umar ibn al-Khittab replied: Sign what they ask, but add
two clauses and impose them in addition to those which they have undertaken.
They are: "
"They shall not buy anyone made prisoner by the Muslims," and
"Whoever strikes a Muslim with deliberate intent shall forfeit the
protection of this pact."
Following is the translated source:
Pact of Umar Al-Turtushi, Siraj al-Muluk, pp. 229-230.
We heard from 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ghanam [died 78/697] as follows: When Umar
ibn al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, accorded a peace to the
Christians of Syria, we wrote to him as follows:
(When I brought the letter to Umar, may God be pleased with him, he added,
"We shall not strike a Muslim.")
We accept these conditions for ourselves and for the people of our
community, and in return we receive safe-conduct.
If we in any way violate these undertakings for which we ourselves stand
surety, we forfeit our covenant [dhimma], and we become liable to the
penalties for contumacy and sedition.
Umar ibn al-Khittab replied: Sign what they ask, but add two clauses and
impose them in addition to those which they have undertaken. They are: "They
shall not buy anyone made prisoner by the Muslims," and "Whoever strikes a
Muslim with deliberate intent shall forfeit the protection of this pact."
****************************
Blogging the Qur’an: Sura 9, “Repentance,” verse 29, Part
2
Verse 29 of chapter 9 of the Qur’an, as we saw last week, mandates that the
Muslims fight against the Jews and Christians “until they pay the jizya
[poll tax] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”
Asad, Daryabadi and other Western-oriented commentators maintain that the
jizya was merely a tax for exemption for military service. Asad explains:
“every able-bodied Muslim is obliged to take up arms in jihad (i.e., in a
just war in God’s cause) whenever the freedom of his faith or the political
safety of his community is imperiled…Since this is, primarily, a religious
obligation, non-Muslim citizens, who do not subscribe to the ideology of
Islam, cannot in fairness be expected to assume a similar burden.” But they
pass in silence over the latter part of v. 29, which mandates the
humiliation of non-Muslims.
In explaining how the Jews and Christians must “feel themselves subdued,”
Ibn Kathir quotes a saying of Muhammad: “Do not initiate the Salam [greeting
of peace] to the Jews and Christians, and if you meet any of them in a road,
force them to its narrowest alley.” He then goes on to outline the notorious
Pact of Umar, an agreement made, according to Islamic tradition, between the
caliph Umar, who ruled the Muslims from 634 to 644, and a Christian
community.
This Pact is worth close examination, because it became the foundation for
Islamic law regarding the treatment of the dhimmis. With remarkably little
variation, throughout Islamic history whenever Islamic law was strictly
enforced, this is generally how non-Muslims were treated. Working from the
full text as Ibn Kathir has it, these are the conditions the Christians
accept in return for “safety for ourselves, children, property and followers
of our religion” – conditions that, according to Ibn Kathir, “ensured their
continued humiliation, degradation and disgrace.” The Christians will not:
1. Build “a monastery, church, or a sanctuary for a monk”;
2. “Restore any place of worship that needs restoration”;
3. Use such places “for the purpose of enmity against Muslims”;
4. “Allow a spy against Muslims into our churches and homes or hide deceit
[or betrayal] against Muslims”;
5. Imitate the Muslims’ “clothing, caps, turbans, sandals, hairstyles,
speech, nicknames and title names”;
6. “Ride on saddles, hang swords on the shoulders, collect weapons of any
kind or carry these weapons”;
7. “Encrypt our stamps in Arabic”
8. “Sell liquor” – Christians in Iraq in the last few years ran afoul of
Muslims reasserting this rule;
9. “Teach our children the Qur’an”;
10. “Publicize practices of Shirk” – that is, associating partners with
Allah, such as regarding Jesus as Son of God. In other words, Christian and
other non-Muslim religious practice will be private, if not downright
furtive;
11. Build “crosses on the outside of our churches and demonstrating them and
our books in public in Muslim fairways and markets” – again, Christian
worship must not be public, where Muslims can see it and become annoyed;
12. “Sound the bells in our churches, except discreetly, or raise our voices
while reciting our holy books inside our churches in the presence of
Muslims, nor raise our voices [with prayer] at our funerals, or light
torches in funeral processions in the fairways of Muslims, or their
markets”;
13. “Bury our dead next to Muslim dead”;
14. “Buy servants who were captured by Muslims”;
15. “Invite anyone to Shirk” – that is, proselytize, although the Christians
also agree not to:
16. “Prevent any of our fellows from embracing Islam, if they choose to do
so.” Thus the Christians can be the objects of proselytizing, but must not
engage in it themselves;
17. “Beat any Muslim.”
Meanwhile, the Christians will:
1. Allow Muslims to rest “in our churches whether they come by day or
night”;
2. “Open the doors [of our houses of worship] for the wayfarer and
passerby”;
3. Provide board and food for “those Muslims who come as guests” for three
days;
4. “Respect Muslims, move from the places we sit in if they choose to sit in
them” – shades of Jim Crow;
5. “Have the front of our hair cut, wear our customary clothes wherever we
are, wear belts around our waist” – these are so that a Muslim recognizes a
non-Muslim as such and doesn’t make the mistake of greeting him with As-salaamu
aleikum, “Peace be upon you,” which is the Muslim greeting for a fellow
Muslim;
6. “Be guides for Muslims and refrain from breaching their privacy in their
homes.”
The Christians swore: “If we break any of these promises that we set for
your benefit against ourselves, then our Dhimmah (promise of protection) is
broken and you are allowed to do with us what you are allowed of people of
defiance and rebellion.”
Of course, the Pact of Umar is a seventh-century document. But the
imperative to subjugate non-Muslims as mandated by Qur’an 9:29 and
elaborated by this Pact became and remained part of Islamic law. In the
nineteenth century the Western powers began to pressure the last Islamic
empire, the Ottoman Empire, to abolish the dhimma. In Baghdad in the early
nineteenth century, Sheikh Syed Mahmud Allusi (1802-1853), author of the
noted commentary on the Qur’an Ruhul Ma’ani, complains that the Muslims have
grown so weak that the dhimmis pay the jizya through agents, rather than
delivering it themselves on foot. In his Tafsir Anwar al-Bayan, the
twentieth-century Indian Mufti Muhammad Aashiq Ilahi Bulandshahri laments
that “in today’s times, the system of Atonement (Jizya) is not practised at
all by the Muslims. It is indeed unfortunate that not only are the Muslim
States afraid to impose Atonement (Jizya) on the disbelievers (kuffar)
living in their countries, but they grant them more rights than they grant
the Muslims and respect them more. They fail to understand that Allah
desires that the Muslims show no respect to any disbeliever (kafir) and that
they should not accord any special rights to them.”
The influential twentieth century jihadist theorist Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966)
emphasizes that these rules should be revived, for “these verses are given
as a general statement, and the order to fight the people of the earlier
revelations until they pay the submission tax with a willing hand and are
subdued is also of general import” (In the Shade of the Qur’an, Vol. VIII,
p. 126).
Likewise the Pakistani jihadist writer and activist Syed Abul A’la Maududi
(1903-1979) states that “the simple fact is that according to Islam,
non-Muslims have been granted the freedom to stay outside the Islamic fold
and to cling to their false, man-made, ways if they so wish.” That heads off
any potential contradiction between his understanding of v. 29 and 2:256,
“There is no compulsion in religion.” Maududi continues by declaring that
the unbelievers “have, however, absolutely no right to seize the reins of
power in any part of God’s earth nor to direct the collective affairs of
human beings according to their own misconceived doctrines. For if they are
given such an opportunity, corruption and mischief will ensue. In such a
situation the believers would be under an obligation to do their utmost to
dislodge them from political power and to make them live in subservience to
the Islamic way of life” (Towards Understanding the Qur’an, vol. III, p.
202).
Islamic apologists in the West today commonly assert that 9:29 commands
warfare only against the Jews and Christians who fought against Muhammad,
and no others. I wish that every Muslim believed that, but unfortunately
that has never been the mainstream Islamic understanding of this verse.
Indeed, if it had been, the Pact of Umar, which I detail above, would never
have been made — for it was made after Muhammad’s death with Christians
against whom he did not fight. That in itself, as well as the teachings of
all the schools of Islamic law, illustrates that this verse was always
understood as having a universal application.
******************
The original Pact of Umar was apparently issued by caliph
Umar bin al-Khattab (634–644). Though there is wide disagreement among
scholars about the origins and development of this covenant, it seems clear
that the Pact of Umar eventually became a composite statement that was
central to the Muslim legal structure in terms of dealing with non-Muslim
populations in the early Abbasid period and thereafter. As Muslim dominion
rapidly expanded by military means in the 7th century, means of treating
Non-Muslims as dhimma, or protected person were implemented, which would
henceforth be used as a model.
According to the pact, conquered Jews and Christians under subjection were
allowed the privilege of worshiping according to their own religion, albeit
in a very subdued and non-evangelistic manner, to own property, and to
pursue their occupations. In return they acknowledged the authority of the
Muslim government, swore loyalty to the state, and paid the jizya as other
financial assessments, and thus received some protection from molestation,
provided they where found faithful to the Pact.
The pact prohibited Christians and Jews from marrying Muslim women or making
any public religious displays, such as exhibiting statues, ringing bells,
holding processions, issuing proclamations, and undertaking new construction
of synagogues or churches. Jews and Christians were not allowed to
evangelize, teach the Qur'an, prevent family members from converting to
Islam, imitate Muslims in appearance, bury their dead in Muslim cemeteries,
build homes that overlooked those of Muslims, own slaves previously owned by
Muslims, hold political office, ride horses or camels, testify against a
Muslim in a criminal legal case, sell alcohol, pork, or carrion to Muslims.
In addition, Jews and Christians were to identify themselves by wearing a
girdle over external clothing, shaving the front of their head (males), and
using distinctive headgear, saddles, and mounts.
They also had to agree that if they in any way violated these commands, then
they forfeited the covenant [dhimma], and become liable to the penalties for
insubordination.
It is also understood by some that the Jews, Christians and Magians are to
be asked to convert to Islam, and if they refuse then they should be asked
to pay the jizyah. If they refuse to pay the jizyah then the Muslims must
fight them if and when they are able to do so.
Encyclopedia
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أنسكلوبيديا