The Prophet Muhammad-A Role Model for Muslim Minorities
Muhammad Yasin Mazhar Siddiqui
The Islamic Foundation, Leicester
Year 2006, Pp: 230
Islamic scholars, both traditional as well as modern, have tended to perceive and project Islam as a ‘ruling faith’ and as one inseparable from Muslim political domination. This inevitably brings in issues of governance, legislation, and state. In the absence of such a state, it is believed, particularly by certain extreme Islamists, every effort must be made to establish such a political dispensation. The problem has been further exacerbated by continued reliance on the corpus of medieval fiqh or Muslim jurisprudence, which assumed the existence of a Muslim ruler committed to ruling according to Muslim law and which was developed in a historical context of Muslim rule. Obviously, such an understanding of Islam poses major problems and challenges for Muslims living as minorities today, so argues Yasin Mazhar Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies at the Aligarh Muslim University, in this immensely absorbing book.
Nearly 30 per cent of the Muslims live as minorities in today’s world. For them, the political perspectives reflected by the corpus of traditional fiqh are of little or no relevance, and can even be hugely problematic. Siddiqui therefore takes it upon himself to develop an understanding of Muslim jurisprudence that is particularly suited to their context, making a valuable contribution to the limited, but slowly expanding, corpus of writings on fiqh al-aqalliyat or fiqh for [Muslim] minorities.
Siddiqui argues that the basis for such a fiqh must lie in the 13-year Makkan period of life of the Prophet, when the Muslims were a minority and did not enjoy political domination. In many senses, their position resembled that of Muslim minorities today who need to see the role of the nascent community in that period as a model for them to emulate, Siddiqui suggests.
The first part of the book discusses aspects of the life in Makkah. The second part seeks to draw out lessons from these experiences for Muslims living as minorities today.
In this period of Muslims as a politically marginalized minority, the Prophet did not seek to acquire political power. Rather, the focus of his efforts was on spreading Islam through his personal example. Among other factors, it was his personality and his concern for others, irrespective of religion and social status, which won him an increasing number of followers. He, and several of his followers, enjoyed the protection of their own tribes, in accordance with the traditional Arab tribal code. His uncle, Abu Talib, who, while very close to the Prophet, did not accept Islam, provided him protection, and after his demise, he received the support of another family of the Banu Abd Manaf, the Banu Nawfal.
The Prophet also continued his profession as a trader, maintaining business links with non-Muslims. Some Quraish chiefs in Makkah accepted Islam and worked along with their non-Muslim fellow Quraishis in governing the affairs of the city till the Prophet was forced to migrate to Medina. This, Siddiqui suggests, ‘provides a role model for the participation of a Muslim minority in bodies dominated by non-Muslims’ (p.110).
As persecution of Muslims mounted, the Prophet allowed several of his followers to migrate to Abyssinia, a largely Christian country. They were warmly received by the ruler, Negus, who treated them well when he discovered similarities between his faith and that of the Prophet. These migrants adopted aspects of the local culture and mingled closely with the inhabitants of the land, rather than living a ghettoized existence, so much so that some of them chose to stay on there even after the Prophet had shifted to Medina.
Even after the Hijra, some Muslims remained behind in Makkah, Siddiqui writes, facing considerable persecution. Yet, despite all odds, they remained firm in their faith, and some of them received support from their non-Muslim relatives and friends. Siddiqui mentions the interesting case of the companion Abdur Rahman ibn Awf, who, having migrated to Medina, entered into an agreement with Umayyah ibn Khalaf, a non-Muslim Makkan and a close friend. According to the agreement, which was put down in writing, Umayyah and Abdur Rahman would reciprocally protect each others’ relatives and property in Makkah and Madinah. This received Prophet’s endorsement.
The Prophet advocated and adopted a pragmatic approach to inter-community relations and politics, both when Muslims were a non-ruling minority, as well as when the Prophet established a state in Medina. It is evident from the life as a prophet in Makkah that ‘the Prophet helped Muslims evolve within the constraints imposed by the tribal system and the prevalent social values and customs’. He, Siddiqui writes, did not want to do away with all local institutions and aspects of local culture. Rather, he accepted those of them that were good and in accordance with Islam, modified some others and rejected those that violated Islamic teachings. His was, then, a ‘middle way’, that entailed ‘reforming, adapting, restoring and reconstructing the existing order’, rather than wholly opposing it (p.173).
This approach has valuable lessons for Muslims living as minorities today. Just as the Prophet used the traditional Arab tribal ‘social security system’ for protection, so, too, Muslim minorities should seek to make use of the constitutional and legal provisions and rights that almost all states today provide. Just as the Prophet worked with non-Muslim Makkans in the Hilf al-Fadul, a group of people who helped the needy, so, too, must Muslim minorities work along with well-meaning non-Muslims on social, economic, cultural and development issues of common concern.
This monograph is a brilliant contribution to the on-going debates about fiqh for Muslim minorities. It provides valuable insights for developing new and more relevant understandings of Islamic jurisprudence in Muslim minority contexts, envisaging the possibility of reconciling Islamic commitment with Muslim minority-ness, an issue that has largely escaped the attention of Islamic scholars, but one that has sometimes been, and continues to be, a troubling one for many Muslims living as minorities.
