Page 109 - Seekers Guide Book
P. 109
The Seeker’s Guide
culture of discrimination is, after all, quite alien to a
divine religion.
27 What is jizya?
izya was only a temporary kind of punitive tax levied
Jupon a group of Arabs who had rebelled at the time
of the Prophet of Islam. Despite their pact of allegiance
to the Prophet of Islam, this group of Arabs had joined
hands with the antagonists against the Prophet and his
Companions.
After jizya was abrogated, only the practice of Kharaj
(land-tax) remained applicable to all (Muslims and non-
Muslims) alike. The practice of collecting jizya by Muslim
rulers in later times from the non-Muslim minority has
no grounds in Islam.
28 Who is a kafir?
he word kafir has never been used in the Quran to
Tmean either a non-Muslim or an infidel. In fact, this
term was applied solely to contemporaries of the Prophet.
Kafir (pl. kuffar) was used to refer to those people who
had completely understood the true message of Islam
and refused to believe in it due to stubbornness. The
Prophet peacefully conveyed to them the divine message
over a long period of time, but they refused to follow the
truth of his words. God, therefore, declared those people,
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