PROF U MUHAMMAD IQBAL presents a study of the Blessed Prophet’s art of governance, especially his dealing with communal tension and treatment of religious minorities.
Sri D. Balasubramanian says, “Development has multiple components: Proper food, clothing, and shelter for the people; adequate education and culture; good health; good environment; equal opportunity for all; ability to defend from enemies; economic stability and growth; and above all, good governance, all leading to a justifiable national pride.” (The Hindu, 14 Nov 2013 p.22)
Good governance is given a pride of place among the components of development in the extract given above. Governance is possible, only if the institutions of legislation, judiciary and executive are legitimately and transparently constituted with the sole aim of establishing the rule of law, without curtailment of the rights and freedoms of citizens, without discrimination against disadvantaged people, without custodial deaths in prisons and police stations, and without fake encounters, and without illegal gratification. The rule of law should be an impenetrable shield of protection and security for the weaker sex and the weaker sections of society.
In this article, I propose to discuss two aspects of the Prophet’s governance. Even today, communal tension and treatment of religious minorities sap the will and resources of the government the world over. And so, in the following paragraphs, how he dealt with a communal riot and how he treated the Christians of Najran would be described.
Prophet Muhammad (Allah’s blessings and peace be unto him) was God’s gift to mankind and he himself was endowed with inborn and inherent divine gifts. One of the divine gifts was the gift to adjudicate, arbitrate, and resolve disputes which seemed likely to result in awful consequences. As an individual, he could achieve what powerful institutions are not able to achieve today. The way he solved the problem of the installation of the Black Stone in the holy structure of the Ka’abah is a classic example.
The same far-sightedness was brought to bear upon the drafting of a constitution during the Madinah period of his epoch-making life. As head of the state and government, he had to ensure peaceful co-existence of the diversity of groups which constituted Madinah citizenry. The gulf between the poor Arabs and the rich Jews had to be bridged. The mutually hostile Aus and Khazraj tribes had to be persuaded to bury the hatchet and get emotionally integrated. The bejewelled attribute of peace-making shone in all brightness when his efforts achieved a lasting success. “Remember the blessing that Allah bestowed upon you: you were once enemies, then He brought your hearts together, so that through His blessing, you became brothers.” (3:103)
Economy of the nascent state of Madinah had to be preserved during the migration of persecuted Muslims from Makkah and other areas. It redounds to the credit of his Prophetic genius that, more than fourteen hundred years ago, he prepared a constitution guaranteeing all freedoms which a modern nation-state vainly strives to realise, and the constitution was upheld with all its effectiveness. The territorial integrity of the tiny state of Madinah was safeguarded against foreign aggression. Patriotism was inculcated and it stood them in good stead when the might of all the hostile Arab tribes was unleashed upon the small capital of the Islamic state.
Bani Qainuqa was the richest and bravest of the tribes among the Jews. Even though Abdullah bin Salam (may Allah be pleased with him), a Jewish scholar of this tribe, had embraced Islam, the tribe in general remained openly hostile to the Muslims. One day, a Muslim lady went to their locality to sell milk. While returning she stepped into a shop to buy something. It was a market-place. Many Jews gathered near the shop. The purdah-clad lady was an object of attraction for them. They teased her and tried to remove her veil from the face. She stoutly resisted their attempts. During the ensuing disturbance, the shopkeeper stealthily tied a corner of her dress to the covering on her back. When she stood up, the knot that the shopkeeper had made pulled her clothes down from her back and it became naked. The lady’s discomfiture brought hilarity to the Jews who were gathered there. She raised a hue and cry over the Jewish misconduct. A Muslim passer-by rushed to her rescue and confronted the Jewish shopkeeper. The confrontation led to the shopkeeper’s death at the hands of the Muslim passer-by. The Jewish crowd took revenge by lynching him. The incident triggered a communal riot.
On coming to know of the deaths and the disturbance, the Prophet (unto him be Allah’s blessings and peace) reacted quickly. He ordered the Qainuqa tribe to assemble in their market-place. When they assembled, he addressed them. The address consisted of an appeal to them to fear God as they would be answerable to God on the Day of Judgment and a warning that if they did not desist from their atrocious behaviour towards the Muslims and if they violated the rights of the Muslims with regard to their life, honour and property, the Jewish tribe would suffer the same fate which the Makkan opponents of the Prophet had suffered during the Battle of Badr.
The address consisted of an invitation to them to believe in his claim that he was Allah’s Messenger, and that his advent was foretold in the Jewish scripture. The example of Abdullah bin Salam was there for them to emulate.
Intoxicated with wealth and military prowess, they not only turned down his appeal but also returned the document of mutual agreement to live in peace and harmony and declared that they were ready for an armed conflict, to prove that the Prophet would catch a Tartar in them. They threw down the gauntlet and he picked it up. The Prophet led an army against Bani Qainuqa on the 15th of Shawwal in the second year of hegira and laid siege to their fortified strongholds. The siege lasted fifteen days and outside help which was promised to them by the Prophet’s enemies did not come. They were forced to surrender. Their boastfulness became a damp squib.
A ring leader of the hypocrites was their ally and he had embraced Islam a few days earlier. He put pressure upon the Prophet to forgive them. Ubada bin Thabit, a good Muslim, also made an appeal of mercy to the Prophet (Allah’s blessings and peace be unto him). The tribe was consequently banished from Madinah.
As head of the state, he meant business and did not allow the honour of ladies and the sanctity of human life to be compromised. He moved swiftly to nip the evil of communal violence in the bud and he succeeded, in doing so, so effectively that there was no recurrence of such an incident.
Every rightly guided Caliph knew that he was elected to the high office to ensure that the rights of the weak were protected against the insolence of office and might and to ensure that the victims were snatched away from the jaws of persecution and torture and to ensure that the unsuspecting people were not exploited by the cunning, the wicked, the unscrupulous, and the greedy. The model for governance he followed was provided by the Prophet (Allah’s blessings and peace be to him).
His governance was characterised by a sense of uncompromising accountability – accountability before people and before Allah. An example of accountability before people is the convincing and eloquent defence that he offered to the Ansars with regard to the distribution of the booty of war after the Battle of Badr when the disgruntled youngsters among them carried on a whispering campaign against his august self and his sense of fairness. A caliph voiced his concern in Madinah that he would be accountable to Allah if a lamb or a dog were to die on the distant banks of the Euphrates as a consequence of his or the State’s negligence.
The Qur’ān is explicit, “Never will the Jews be pleased with you, (O Prophet) nor the Christians until you follow their way. Say, Surely Allah’s guidance is the true guidance.” (2:20) In spite of their wish that Muslims should lose the Right Way, (4:44) the Prophet (Allah’s blessings and peace be unto him) did not allow diplomatic relationship to be clouded by any bias. He had armed conflicts with the Jews but not with the Christians, who imbibed the milk of human kindness from their benevolent priests. (Qur’ān, 5:82)
In the ninth year of hegira, Abu Harris, the Pope of Najran, Abdul Maseeh, the Archbishop, Eloihim, the Caravan leader along with a retinue of citizens and officials arrived in Madinah. The delegation had 24 leaders. They were permitted to stay in the Holy Mosque and allowed full freedom of worship. When they came out dressed officially, their flamboyance was quite awesome to the onlookers. The Prophet received them with full diplomatic honours in his mosque which housed his secretariat. As usual, he invited them formally to accept Islam. They questioned the authenticity of the Islamic teachings. Then the Prophet was advised by God to seek trial by ordeal to establish his truthfulness.
“Tell whoever disputes with you on this matter after true knowledge has come to you.” Come! Let us summon our sons and your sons, and our women and your women, and ourselves and yourselves, and then let us pray together and invoke the curse of Allah on those who lie.” (Qur’ān 3:61)
When this invitation was rejected, a compromise was offered. “Say: O People of the Book! Come to a word common between us and you: that we shall serve none but Allah and shall associate none with Him in His Divinity and that some of us will not take others as lords other than Allah.” (3:64)
As the Ruler of the Arabian peninsula, he gave the Christian community an official guarantee that he would support the chief Priest of the Christians of Najran in the administration of his church, that there would be no reduction in the powers of the officials and no removal from their respective posts, that there would be no interference in the conduct of their religious rituals, and that the dignity of the divines would be maintained. He assured them that there would be no conscription. He hoped that in return they would desist from being troublesome to the Islamic state. (Aksi Seerat, p. 378)
The Christians of Najran came to sign a treaty of peace and left, turning down his invitation to accept Islam. He did not force them.
He divided Arabia into 10 provinces. He appointed governors over the areas conquered by force of arms, some rulers signed a treaty of accession and they were not disturbed. Makkah was the capital of Hejaz and Najd. The Prophet (Allah’s blessings and peace be unto him) selected three Christians governors for the provinces of Eilath, Domathul Jandal and Najran. (Khalid Alawi, Insan-e- Kamil, (Urdu), p.384) Yemen had a diversity of religious groups – Muslims, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians and the official religion of the state was Islam.
The Prophet did not encourage people who were lured by office and sought postings. Merit was the main consideration. “Allah commands you to deliver trusts to those worthy of them.” (4:58) He paid salaries to the officials. Allowance was made for the maintenance of a household comprising a family and a maidservant and the construction of a house. (Abu Dawood, Kitabul Amara Vol. III p.185). Though there was no official ombudsman, the Prophet discharged the duties himself and monitored trade activities.
He participated in politics with the main aim to retrieve and preserve human dignity and security, to strengthen social fabric and regulate inter-personal relationship without resort to violence and bloodshed. Keeping this end in view, he signed treaties with the tribes living in the neighbourhood of Madinah. To establish a society comprising righteous men, dedicated to God and with a commitment to human welfare, and to ensure that all good things have unhindered growth and all evil and harmful things are starved of oxygen, the resources of a government are direly needed. The aim of the Prophet’s involvement in politics was precisely to achieve the supremacy of deen/ dharma. He sought Allah’s pleasure, people’s welfare, and religious harmony to neutralise ethnic and linguistic conflicts and economic disparities through the mechanism of a government.