The Idea of Pakistan

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THE RIGHTS OF NON-MUSLIMS
IN ISLAMIC STATE 
Dr. Muhammad Nazeer Kaka Khel
1
* 
 
Introduction: 
Most Muslim states of the present times are secular and we have no 
working model on which to base the study of the rights of non-Muslims in 
Islamic state. Like other aspects of the Islamic system, once it is adopted in 
practice in our times, a great deal of innovative thinking and creative 
interpretation and application would be called for. Nevertheless, we can 
form an idea of the rights and obligations of non-Muslim groups in an 
Islamic state of the modern age by going back to the Qur’an,Hadith and 
early history of Islam to discover what rights in principle are granted to 
those in an Islamic state who do not subscribe to the ideology of the state 
and what humanistic values an Islamic society is under absolute obligation 
to uphold. 
The Qur’an declares that man is the noblest of all the creation
1
. The 
universe is made for him and is subservient to his purposes. Among all the 
creation he alone is endowed with moral and rational powers and is charged 
with the grave and all important responsibility of subduing nature and 
pressing it in the service of good ends
2
. For the realization of these 
objective ends first of all umma was established and integrated at Makkah
3
and then it was politically organized at Madinah
4
. No doubt the setting up of 
a state and government was regarded by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be 
upon him) as a much less important event than the original compact leading 
to the establishment of umma but using Rousseau’s language, state and 
*
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Nazeer Kaka Khel is chairman of International Relations &
Political Science Department, Qurtuba University (D.I. Khan) Pakistan
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government had to be considered as a necessary means for the development 
of the moral potentialities of man’s original nature. 
Following the foundation of the Islamic state at Madinah, the 
Charter (Mithaq al-Madinah) that Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave to 
the citizens of the newly founded state was not merely a treaty of alliance 
but a written constitution
defining the rights and obligations of the citizens 
and subjects of the new polity. It granted to the citizens and subjects alike 
the liberty of thought, conscience, equality, equity and fraternity irrespective 
of their caste, colour, creed or social status. It was a time when the 
Christians still preached the doctrine that “man is born sinful and that Jesus 
Christ had sacrificed himself for the atonement of Christians”. 
In view of the above statements, we have to examine first the 
concept of dhimma in Islam and the nominal obligation imposed on the non-
Muslims. Next we shall proceed to discuss the rights of dhimmis or non-
Muslim minorities in the Islamic state.