Imam Baihaqi in Shu`b al-Iman [2:518] and Ibn Kathir [2:31] in Sirah an-Nabawwiyyah narrate that a Christian delegate came from Abyssinia. The Holy Prophet [peace be upon him] personally looked after them as his guests in his mosque in Madinah. The companions were astounded at this and the Prophet responded saying: 'they are our guests of our honorable friends. I would personally like to look after them'.
In the Tabaqat of Ibn Sa`d [1:357] and Qurtabi's Jami` al-Ahkam [4:4] it is narrated that a delegate of Christians came to the Prophet's mosque. The Christians wanted to pray so the Holy Prophet [peace be upon him] permitted them to pray facing to the east in accordance to their own faith.
Thus, the Prophet [peace be upon him] laid down the foundation for inter-faith dialogue, and respect for other faiths and cultures, by allowing non-Muslims to pray as they wished within his Mosque. This is a practice no Muslim can denounce; otherwise it would result in the negation of a sunnah of the Holy Prophet [peace be upon him] who was the first to put this into practice.
The Prophet [peace be upon him] said: Whosoever kills a non-Muslim citizen without due appropriateness Allah will make forbidden for him Paradise.
The Prophet [peace be upon him] said: Whosoever kills a non-Muslim citizen will not smell the scent of Paradise. Indeed, the scent of Paradise can be found at a distance of forty years.
Abdullah ibn Abbass, the Prophet's companion, stated that whenever the Prophet [peace be upon him] would send out his army he would say: do not defraud; be not zealous; do not mutilate; and kill not a child nor a monk [in his hermitage].
Abd ar-Rahman bin Bilmani narrates that a Muslim man murdered a non-Muslim citizen. The matter was raised to the Prophet. The Prophet [peace be upon him] said: I am the most responsible to the one who places his trust in me. Thereafter he gave the order and the [Muslim] man was killed [legally out of retaliation for murder].
Ali, the fourth caliph of Islam, stated: If a Muslim kills a Christian, the Muslim is to be killed [legally out of retaliation].
The Prophet [peace be upon him] said: the blood-money of a Jew and a Christian, and every non-Muslim citizen, is equal to the blood-money of a Muslim.
Ali, the fourth caliph of Islam, stated: the Jizyah [head tax on free non-Muslim citizens under Muslim rule] was only enforced so that their blood should be like the blood of ours, and that their wealth should be [protected] like our own wealth.
The Prophet [peace be upon him] said: Take heed! Whosoever wrongs a non-Muslim citizen, or detracts from him, or burdens him beyond his ability, or takes from him without his consent, will have I as his advocate on the Day of Judgment [for the upholding of the rights of that non-Muslim].
Abu Thalab Khashni narrates that the Prophet [peace be upon him] forbade the killing of women and children.
Anas related that the Prophet [peace be upon him] said: Kill not the elderly, nor an infant, nor a child, nor a woman.
Dhahaak, a companion of the Prophet, stated that the Prophet [peace be upon him] used to forbid the killing of women and the elderly.
Anas relates that the Prophet [peace be upon him] said: Whosoever imposes a blockade on the homes [of people] or robs the highways has his Jihad nullified.
Montgomery Watt, in his Islamic Political Thought pg. 51, states: The Christians were better off as dhimmis under Muslim Arab rulers than they had been under the Byzantine Greeks.
Phillip K. Hitti, in The History of the Arabs pg. 170, states: They [non-Muslims] were allowed the jurisdiction of their own canon laws as administered by the respective head of the states of their religious communities.
On page 231 he states: Syria as a whole remained largely Christian until the third Muslim century... in fact the Lebanon remained Christian in faith and Syriac in speech centuries after the conquest.
This is the true teaching of Islam which has been hijacked by a small number of extremists. Let everyone know that Islam is a religion of peace, love and mercy; and that whatever propaganda that has been flared up again this beautiful and noble religion is total falsehood. And it is time that we learn what is true and distinguish it from the lies and the untruth.
To God alone is all success.
