Letter Of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) Letter To The Monks Of St. Catherine Monastery


To all friend nairalanders,

here is the stands of our beloved prophet Mohammed (S.A.W) on Christians.

This is the relationship between Christian and Muslim as far as Islam is concern. The act of violence by some few people in the north is not the call of Islam, but a misguided belief.

Islam preaches peace,love and Unity.


LETTER OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PBUH) LETTER TO THE MONKS OF ST. CATHERINE MONASTERY, !
This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are the judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil, God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet.
Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them.
If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.
Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).”

Is this an authentic letter?

See the original letter for youself protected by the chritians in the monastery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0SsRmC6O5k

while i cannot deny or confirm that the Prophet sent this letter,i must clarify a clause attributed to the letter:

If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.

if a muslim who permanently marries a non-muslim woman,that woman must willingly accept islam as her faith for marriage to happen.a muslim man cannot permanently marry a non-muslim woman who will bear him children if she is not muslim or if she remains in her own religion.the same goes for females.

i do not deny the goodwill of the Prophet nor do i question the fact that the Prophet was very tolerant of other faiths.the propaganda made today against him is to attack the justice of the Prophet.

all that said,the religion of islam calls for a non-muslim woman to embrace the muslim faith of her muslim husband for them to be married.so therefore there is something wrong with that clause in the letter allegedly written by the Prophet.maybe we should examine the orginal letter.i will try and do more research on this letter and if i come up with any new info i will post it.

one possibility which comes to mind is the timing of the letter.possibly the letter was written before any verse prohibiting permanent marriage to a non-muslim while the non-muslim keeps her faith was revealed.that can be seen because many muslim women including the 3 "daughters"  of the Prophet were married to non-muslims before the revelation of a verse forbidden muslim women to remain married to idol worshippers.that is the only possibility which can explain the clause relating to marriage in the letter.at our present time a muslim,male or female, is forbidden to marry a non-muslim except that the non-muslim willingly without compulsion embraces the islamic faith for the sake of Allah and not simply for the sake of marriage.

For a Muslim male to marry a female from the people of the book (christian) is permissible

The Quran in Sura 5:5 says:

. . . Likewise you are permitted to marry chaste believing women [Muslims] or chaste women among the people who were given the Scripture [Jews and Christians] . . . . (Maududi, vol. 1, p. 427)

This verse, as noted, says that Islam permits Muslim men to marry non-Muslim women who are Christians and Jews, but a Jewish or Christian man may not marry a Muslim woman.

It's permissible but it's deemed as makruh tahriman outside Dar al-Islam; i.e. the marriage woudl be sinful, but would still be valid.
[Hanafi Madhhab ruling]

The Holy Qur’an has placed no restriction if a Muslim man wants to marry a Christian lady. It however has commanded the believers not to marry anyone who associates other partners or deities with God (polytheists) as He is one and alone nor should the believers marry any convicted criminal of adultery. Apart from these two restrictions, the Shari‘ah (Law of God) has placed no restriction on marriage contracts of the believers.
However, this does not mean that we should not use our sense and reason to choose the person we intend to marry. Indeed, there are many things involved that must be considered before a couple decides to get married. The foremost factor is that there should be harmony between both in terms of their financial status and religious set up. Religion is not a trivial matter to be ignored while choosing your prospective husband. Marriage means that two persons are going to live together for the rest of their lives. Do you think that there would be no conflict on religious issues? What about the children that God will bless you with? What religion would they be taught? You may think that such matters are of less importance to modern minds. But I assure you that these matters will of be concern to you both once you come out of the euphoria that people experience before marriage.
As for your saying ‘Does the Qur'an say that the Christian women have to convert to Islam and gain knowledge about it to marry the Muslim men?’, I would like to tell you that the Holy Qur’an does not hold religion as a matter of petty importance. Why would Qur’an ask a lady to renounce her religion for some mortal man? Religion is something very personal in nature. It is a deep relationship — a connection more strong than the one which is established between a man and his wife. It is about God and His servants; it is about God and you. There is no man between you and Him. You accept Him on a very personal basis; you surrender before Him of your own accord. Did you know that Islam gives so much respect to Christians because of the fact that they believe in one God? The bitterest thing is however that they have devised ‘Three’ for the One that is alone and devoid of any partner whosoever. He is One and is the Creator and Master of all humans. Islam calls all the Christians to accept the fact that was also propagated by Jesus (sws) as the Lord is One. What I wish to say is that religion is something that should be chosen with a serious mind and after appreciating the value of the specific teachings that this religion promotes. Islam does not force people to convert. It is the truth that every willing person is welcome to embrace.

And Allah knows best.

@lagos shia, do not make impermissible what the prophet made permissible. u may advice people not to do it not because it i not permissible,but because it as some negative impact on the children.

i dnt know about the letter and cant say its true or not but my observation is that i cant find the word

Bismilahi rahamon roheem any where in the letter


And Allah knows best

Tafsir from Holy Quran 5:5 does not say you can "marry all/any of the females from the people of the book" or that we can marry "from them" but "among them":

QUR'AN: and the chaste (ones) from among the believing women and the chaste (ones) from among those who have been given the Book before you (are lawful for you): The description of the group using the verb (i.e. among those who have been given the Book), instead of saying, from the Jews and the Christians or even saying, from the People of the Book, points in a way to the reason of the law; because Allah wants to show His favor and to ease the burden from the believers. The meaning: We have done you a favor by easing the burden by removing the prohibition of marriage between your men and the chaste women of those who have been given the Book before you, because they are nearest to you of all the non-Muslim communities, as they were given the Book and they had believed in One God and the prophets, in contrast to the Idol-worshippers and polytheists who disbelieve in the prophets. Probably, it is for this reason that "those who have been given the Book" is followed by the words "before you"; it clearly indicates a mixing and intermingling.

Be as it may. The verse describes the favor of Allah and relaxation of rule; such a law cannot be made subject to abrogation. There are two verses which seem to contradict this relaxed law: And do not marry the idolatress until they believe (2:221); and hold not to the ties of marriage of unbelieving women (60:10). But these two verses cannot abrogate the verse under discussion because the first verse is in the chapter of "The Cow" and it was the first detailed chapter which came down in Medina long before the chapter of "The Table"; and the second one is in the chapter of "The Woman Tested" and it was revealed in Medina before the conquest of Mecca, that is, more than two years before the revelation of the chapter of "The Table". Therefore, the earlier revealed verses cannot abrogate a verse revealed later. Moreover, the traditions say that the chapter of "The Table" was the last chapter revealed to the Prophet (s.a.w.); it has abrogated some previous laws but nothing has abrogated this chapter. Apart from that, you have seen in the exegesis of the verse 2:221 that these two verses (of "The Cow" and "The Woman Tested" are not concerned at all with the subject of the marriage with a Christian or a Jewish woman.

If one were to claim that the verse of "The Woman Tested" somehow showed unlawfulness of such a marriage, and if one were to say that the tone of the verse of "The Table", showing Divine favor and relaxation proved that such a marriage was previously forbidden - otherwise there was no place for showing favor and relaxation - then this verse of the chapter of "The Table" will abrogate the verse of the "The Woman Tested", and not vice versa. We shall further talk under "Traditions" about this second verse.

al-Muhsanat has been translated here as "the chaste ones". Chastity is one of the meanings of al-ihsan. The clause, "and the chaste (ones) from among the believing women and the chaste (ones) from among those who have been given the Book before you", clearly shows that these women are unmarried, and putting together these two groups of the People of the Book and the believers demands that the word al-muhsanat should have the same meaning in both places. It means that al-ihsan here cannot be interpreted as Islam, because of inclusion of the women of the People of the Book. Also, the word cannot be interpreted as the free women because the Divine favor would remain incomplete if it were confined to the free women and excluded the slave girls. Thus, we see that no connotation of the word, al-ihsan, can fit on this verse except chastity.

The verse explicitly shows the lawfulness of the chaste women of the People of the Book for the believers without mentioning permanent marriage or the mut'ah; the only condition is that the believers should give them their dowries and the relationship should be of marriage, not fornicating nor taking them for paramours in secret. It means that the believers are allowed to marry them paying them their dowries and not indulging in illicit relations with them, without mentioning any condition regarding permanency or temporariness of the marriage; and we have described under the Divine words, Then as to such of them with whom you have mut'ah that mut'ah, is a marriage like the permanent one. Its details should be seen in the books of fiqh.

QUR'AN: when you have given them their dowries, taking (them) in marriage, not fornicating nor taking them for paramours in secret:
It is the same theme that we had seen in the verse. "And lawful for you is (all) besides that, that you seek (them) with your property, taking (them) with decency, not committing fornication" (4:24). This sentence indicates that the verse is speaking about lawfulness of the marriage with chaste women of the People of the Book and does not cover slave girls.



http://www.shiasource.com/al-mizan/

is it hadith or, and who related the letter?

I hope this will soften the hatred people have towards Islam. Islam is a religion of peace and will always be.

so if the quran says we can marry among them, what does that means?

and how does it differ from we marrying from them?

bilms:

so if the quran says we can marry among them, what does that means?

and how does it differ from we marrying from them?

it means that you cant find a slu.t who is/claims to be christian and you as a muslim would marry her.so its not all of them.that is if we want to take a more embracing and general meaning of the verse.

contemporary shia scholars are of the opinion that you can marry females among the people of the book for mut'ah marriage.you still find some like Allamah Tabatabai the author of Tafsir al-Mizan who i quoted,who believed that we can marry them permanently if the condition of the verse is met.for example when you want to marry a christian, if she had never being married,she must be virgin or chaste-assuming she lost her virginity not through fornication.

@lagosshia

i too know is d problem u have.

la di rara, wala dira ra.

always creating problem for urself on understanding.

what is d meaning of all u hv wrote, how is it different from d ordinary explanation

The letter is indeed authentic. He (PBUH) sent a similar letter to Negus of Eithopia

Yes, the letter should be compared with other letters from that period.

But marriage wasnt the only thing discussed there though.

Salam brothers

experts:

@lagosshia

i too know is d problem u have.

la di rara, wala dira ra.

always creating problem for urself on understanding.

what is d meaning of all u hv wrote, how is it different from d ordinary explanation

SALAM!

It seems what i said offended you.sorry about that.

misterh:

I hope this will soften the hatred people have towards Islam. Islam is a religion of peace and will always be.

Do u people practice what's allegedly written in the letter?, islam?, religion of peace?!!! don't make me laugh,

you did not offend me, you only need to read through what you write and show the difference.

you did not offend me, you only need to read through what you wrote and show the difference.