Page 50 - A Call For Unity

A Call for Unity

The Prophet Muhammad's (may Allah bless

him and grant him peace) Exemplary

Approach toward the People of the Book

The Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and
grant him peace), the best role model for Muslims who deal
with the People of the Book, was always tender hearted, just
and compassionate toward Jews and Christians and tried to
create an atmosphere based on reconciliation and love among
these three religious communities. Various agreements and
guarantees allowed Christians and Jews to live as au-

tonomous religious communities. When the young Muslim
community was still suffering from the Meccan polytheists'
cruelty and oppression, our Prophet (may Allah bless him
and grant him peace) advised some of them to seek refuge
with the Christian king of Ethiopia, Negus (or al-Najashi).
The Muslims who later on migrated to Madinah with our
Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), on the

other hand, developed a model of coexistence with that city's
Jewish community that was to become a model for all later
generations. The Muslims' acceptance of Jews and Christians
during the period of Islam's expansion in Arabia entered the
history books as an example of justice and understanding.
One such example was our beloved Prophet's (may
Allah bless him and grant him peace) words written in the
text of an agreement prepared for the Christian Ibn Harris bin
Ka`b and his co-religionists: "The religion, churches, lives,

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