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Invitation to Islam Prior to Jihad (view source)
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The practice of inviting non-Muslim nations to join [[Islam]] or pay the [[Jizyah]] prior to engaging in offensive [[Jihad]] was first initiated by the Prophet [[Muhammad]]. His [[Sunnah|example]] was then followed by the Rightly-Guided [[Caliph]]s and the leaders of Islamic empires, codified within the Islamic [[Shari'ah (Islamic Law)|Shari'ah]]<ref>Ahmad Ibn Lulu Ibn Al-Naqib, translated by Noah Ha Mim Keller - [http://www.amazon.com/Reliance-Traveller-Classic-Islamic-Al-Salik/dp/0915957728 Reliance of the Traveller: The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law Umdat Al-Salik (o9.0-8)] - Published by Amana Corporation; Revised edition (July 1, 1997), ISBN-13: 978-0915957729</ref> and is today implemented by various Islamist leaders and terrorist organizations. | The practice of inviting non-Muslim nations to join [[Islam]] or pay the [[Jizyah]] prior to engaging in offensive [[Jihad]] ultimately derives from {{Quran|9|29}}, and traditionally was first initiated by the Prophet [[Muhammad]]. His [[Sunnah|example]] was then followed by the Rightly-Guided [[Caliph]]s and the leaders of Islamic empires, codified within the Islamic [[Shari'ah (Islamic Law)|Shari'ah]]<ref>Ahmad Ibn Lulu Ibn Al-Naqib, translated by Noah Ha Mim Keller - [http://www.amazon.com/Reliance-Traveller-Classic-Islamic-Al-Salik/dp/0915957728 Reliance of the Traveller: The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law Umdat Al-Salik (o9.0-8)] - Published by Amana Corporation; Revised edition (July 1, 1997), ISBN-13: 978-0915957729</ref> and is today implemented by various Islamist leaders and terrorist organizations. A number of letters of this nature are purported to have been authored by Muhammad to the leaders of various nations before they succumbed to Islamic conquest. They are recorded in various literary sources. Professor Sean Anthony suggests that the Heraclius letter served as a model that expanded the prophetic letter topos to include other rulers. The purported letter to Heraclius itself is narrated by al-Zuhri and includes a word distinctive of Christian Palestinian Aramaic. Anthony suggests that al-Zuhri's source text did not include the orginal letter, if it ever existed. A source external to the Islamic tradition, the Armenian historian Pseudo-Sebeos in the 660s CE mentions a letter sent from "the Ismaelites" to Heraclius.<ref name="Anthony">Sean Anthony, ''Muhammad and the Empires of Faith: The making of the Prophet of Islam'', Oakland CA: University of California, 2020, pp. 194-6</ref> Manuscripts purported to be the original letters sent by Muhammad are known to be forgeries.<ref>See this [https://twitter.com/PhDniX/status/1115340718711635970 Twitter thread] by Dr Marijn van Putten. Twitter.com 8 April 2019 ([https://web.archive.org/web/20191108000922/https://twitter.com/PhDniX/status/1115340718711635970 archive])</ref> | ||
[[File:Muhammad-Letter-To-Heraclius.jpg|thumb|right|270px|Letter sent by Prophet [[Muhammad]] to Heraclius, emperor of Byzantium.<ref>Khan, Dr. Majid Ali (1998). Muhammad The Final Messenger. Islamic Book Service, New Delhi, 110002 (India). ISBN 81-85738-25-4</ref>]] | [[File:Muhammad-Letter-To-Heraclius.jpg|thumb|right|270px|Letter sent by Prophet [[Muhammad]] to Heraclius, emperor of Byzantium.<ref>Khan, Dr. Majid Ali (1998). Muhammad The Final Messenger. Islamic Book Service, New Delhi, 110002 (India). ISBN 81-85738-25-4</ref>]] | ||
==Historical== | ==Historical== | ||
===The Ishmaelites to Heraclius=== | |||
Drawing from what he says is a Palestinian source, an Armenian historian known as Pseudo-Sabeos writing in the 660s CE mentions a letter sent from the Ishmaelites to Heraclius. The text of the letter as he records it is given below.<ref name="Anthony" /> | |||
{{Quote|Letter from the Ishmaelites to Heraclius - Pseudo-Sabeos, 660s CE<ref>Translation by R. W. Thomas cited in Sean Anthony, ''Muhammad and the Empires of Faith'' p. 196</ref>|God gave that land to our father Abraham as a hereditary possession and to his seed after him. We are the sons of Abraham. You have occupied our lands long enough. Abandon it peacefully and we shall not come into your territory. Otherwise, we shall demand that possession from you with interest.}} | |||
===Muhammad=== | |||
====Letter to Heraclius (هرقل), the Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople==== | |||
{{Quote||In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful (This letter is) from Muhammad, the slave of Allah, and His Apostle, to Heraculius, the Ruler of the Byzantine. Peace be upon the followers of guidance. Now then, I invite you to Islam (i.e. surrender to Allah), '''embrace Islam and you will be safe''' (أسلم تسلم, ''aslim taslam''); embrace Islam and Allah will bestow on you a double reward. But if you reject this invitation of Islam, you shall be responsible for misguiding the peasants (i.e. your nation).<BR><BR>O people of the Scriptures! Come to a word common to you and us and you, that we worship. None but Allah, and that we associate nothing in worship with Him; and that none of us shall take others as Lords besides Allah. Then if they turn away, say: Bear witness that we are (they who have surrendered (unto Him)..(3.64)<ref>M. Muhsin Khan (Translator) - [{{Reference archive|1=http://www.cmje.org/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/052-sbt.php#004.052.191|2=2011-10-30}} Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihaad), Number 191] - USC-MSA, [[Compendium of Muslim Texts]]</ref>}} | |||
====Letter to the Christians of Aylah (أيلة)==== | ====Letter to the Christians of Aylah (أيلة)==== | ||
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{{Quote||''To John ibn Rubah (يوحنا بن روبة) and the Chiefs of Aylah''. Peace be on you! I praise God for you, beside whom there is no Lord. I will not fight against you until I have written thus unto you. Believe, or else pay tribute. And be obedient unto the Lord and his Prophet, and unto the messengers of his Prophet. Honour them and clothe them with excellent vestments, not with inferior raiment. Specially clothe Zeid with excellent garments. As long as my messengers are pleased, so likewise am I. Ye know the tribute. If ye desire to have security by sea and by land, obey the Lord and his Apostle, and he will defend you from every demand, whether by Arab or foreigner, saving the demand of the Lord and his Apostle. But if ye oppose and displease them, I will not accept from you a single thing, until I have fought against you and taken captive your little ones and slain the elder; for I am the Apostle of the Lord in truth. Believe in the Lord and in his Prophets. And believe in the Messiah son of Mary; verily he is the Word of God: I believe in him that he was a messenger of God. Come then, before trouble reach you. I commend my messengers to you. Give to Harmala three measures of barley; and indeed Harmala hath interceded for you. As for me, if it were not for the Lord and for this (intercession of Harmala), I would not have sent any message at all unto you, until ye had seen the army. But now, if ye obey my messengers, God will be your protector, and Mahomet, and whosoever belongeth unto him. Now my messengers are Sharahbil, &c. Unto you is the guarantee of God and of Mahomet his Apostle, and peace be unto you if ye submit. And convey the people of Macna back to their land.<ref>Muir, Sir William. (1878). [http://books.google.com/books?id=-jxbAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false ''The life of Mahomet'']. (p. 456). London: Smith, Elder & Co</ref>}} | {{Quote||''To John ibn Rubah (يوحنا بن روبة) and the Chiefs of Aylah''. Peace be on you! I praise God for you, beside whom there is no Lord. I will not fight against you until I have written thus unto you. Believe, or else pay tribute. And be obedient unto the Lord and his Prophet, and unto the messengers of his Prophet. Honour them and clothe them with excellent vestments, not with inferior raiment. Specially clothe Zeid with excellent garments. As long as my messengers are pleased, so likewise am I. Ye know the tribute. If ye desire to have security by sea and by land, obey the Lord and his Apostle, and he will defend you from every demand, whether by Arab or foreigner, saving the demand of the Lord and his Apostle. But if ye oppose and displease them, I will not accept from you a single thing, until I have fought against you and taken captive your little ones and slain the elder; for I am the Apostle of the Lord in truth. Believe in the Lord and in his Prophets. And believe in the Messiah son of Mary; verily he is the Word of God: I believe in him that he was a messenger of God. Come then, before trouble reach you. I commend my messengers to you. Give to Harmala three measures of barley; and indeed Harmala hath interceded for you. As for me, if it were not for the Lord and for this (intercession of Harmala), I would not have sent any message at all unto you, until ye had seen the army. But now, if ye obey my messengers, God will be your protector, and Mahomet, and whosoever belongeth unto him. Now my messengers are Sharahbil, &c. Unto you is the guarantee of God and of Mahomet his Apostle, and peace be unto you if ye submit. And convey the people of Macna back to their land.<ref>Muir, Sir William. (1878). [http://books.google.com/books?id=-jxbAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false ''The life of Mahomet'']. (p. 456). London: Smith, Elder & Co</ref>}} | ||
====Letter to Negus, King of Abyssinia==== | ====Letter to Negus, King of Abyssinia==== | ||