Page 34 - Justice and Compassion in the Qur'an
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                            JUSTICE AND COMPASSION IN THE QUR'AN

                  Throughout his life, the Prophet Muhammad (saas)
              advised his people to set aside their ignorant and perverse
              values and to live by the Qur'an. In the Qur'an, racist attitudes
              are defined as "fanatical rage," and people's ambitious
              attitudes are criticized. A related verse reads:

                  Those who disbelieve filled their hearts with fanatical
                  rage—the fanatical rage of the Time of Ignorance—and
                  Allah sent down serenity to His Messenger and to the
                  believers, and obliged them to respect the formula of
                  heedfulness which they had most right to and were most
                  entitled to. Allah has knowledge of all things. (Surat al-
                  Fath, 26)
                  Muslims who obeyed Allah‘s call in the above verse led
              their lives in peace and security, both during the Blessed
              Period of the first community of Islam and in succeeding ages
              when just administrators reigned.


                 In the Period of the Prophet Muhammad

                 (saas), Contracts Signed with the People of
                 the Book and the Pagans Secured
                 Justice in Society
                  After the migration of the Prophet (saas) from Mecca to
              Medina, he encountered many different communities. At that
              period, Jews, Christians and pagans who held power were all
              living together. Under such circumstances, the Prophet
              Muhammad (saas) united the cosmopolitan structure to
              secure social unity and peace by making social agreements—
              either by sending letters or holding face-to-face meetings—
              with more than a hundred communities, and thus achieved
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              social compromise. Prof. Thomas Arnold stresses the
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