Friday, May 9, 2014
The Charter of Madinah, Pluralism, Ummat and Nation State.
This is the responsibility of each and every muslim to study by himself and decide that what is right and what is wrong. We follow what we are taught and we don`t care about its authenticity. He who challenges traditional mind-set is punished saying as Kafir. Traditional mind-sets have distorted our behaviors and images before other religions. We have been misguided and given travesty from religious scholars for achieving their political and personal objectives. The Charter of Madinah stresses on living-together of all religions and plurality but we are forming sealed religion based states. The Charter of Madinah includes non-muslims into Ummat but we limited this term to muslims only. The Charter of Madinah emphasizes on formation of such a state wherein people belonging to all religions can participate in government affairs and are considered as state constituents but we change all these principles as we want.
This charter contains 47 clauses, which laid the foundations of a sovereign nation-state comprising of Muslims, Jews and Pagans, having equal rights and responsibilities under a common citizenship.
The salient features of this charter include:
- All parties included in the charter, i.e. Muslims, people of the book (Jews and Christians) and pagans, had freedom to practice their religion
- All citizens of the state had equal rights and responsibilities and were protected against excess and oppression
- A system of financial aid was developed within each tribe and between tribes. Communal funds were set up which were used in times of financial need such as to pay ransom or blood-money
- In the event of a war or hostile attack from outsiders on one tribe, all tribes of Madinah (signatories of the charter) were required to come to the aid of the defending tribe
- In the event of a dispute among the signatories, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was the final authority for settling the dispute.
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