Dr. Hisham Al-Hammami (*)

Legal Rulings that Focus on the Precepts of the Islamic Sharia
The Holy Quran stipulates free will in human choices because of its position on the issue of faith and unbelief:

‘let whosoever wishes believe, and let whosoever wishes [otherwise] disbelieve’. [al-Kahf: 29].

The Quranic verses are completely clear that ‘there is no compulsion in religion’, and that:

‘If it had been thy Lord's will, they would all have believed,- all who are on earth! wilt thou then compel mankind, against their will, to believe!’ [Yunis: 99]

The holy verses recall the natural social contact between Muslims and non-Muslims in the same society

‘And the food of those who have been given the Scripture is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them’ [al-Ma’ida: 5].

-        and this also applies to marriage and the full dealings in the course of natural life.

This vision is an introduction relating to the ‘Other’, whose creed differs from all those who believe in Allah as their Lord, Islam as their religion and Muhammad [Peace be Upon Him] as their Prophet and messenger.

Similarly, the Prophetic Sunna [the second source of Islamic legislation] unmistakably confirms this meaning, as clarified by the Prophet in his effective stance towards non-Muslims. Perhaps the ‘Sahifa’ document that codified the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims in the first civil society of Medina (the model) is guided by this understanding in practice and application. We read in one of its paragraphs:

‘God’s duty of care is one. The Muslims are protected, and the Jews that follow them are granted help and equity. The Jews have their religion and the Muslims theirs. Each party has its own expenditures, and they are obliged to give support against whosoever attacks this Sahifa…’

We also find the Prophetic Hadith, where it is stipulated:

‘Whosoever oppresses or revolts against a covenant or burdens it above its jurisdiction or takes something from it in bad part, I am his foe on the day of judgement’.

And he also said:

‘Whosoever harms a dhimmi, I am his foe on the day of judgement’.

And:

‘Whosoever harms a dhimmi harms me, and whosoever harms me, harms God’

In his letter to the bishop Najran in Yemen he says:

‘From Muhammad to the Bishop Abu al-Harith and the clergy of Najran, their followers and their monks. What little or many things that are in their possession remain theirs – their wares, their prayers, their monastries, and God’s Prophet does not displace the bishop from his diocese or the monk from his monastery or the priest from his church, and he does not change any of their rights or powers, or any of the things that they possessed. Be advised and accept how little you are burdened with and not oppressed’.

So it was with the Prophet’s Companions and the famous example of the Covenant of Iliya between ‘Umar Bin al-Khattab and the Patriarch. It is recounted in biographies that one of the assistants of ‘Umar Bin al-Khattab (May God Bless Him), was a Christian and he called him to Islam and he declined, and ‘Umar was not angered by his refusal and he left him in his religion.

This is a small sample of the great inundation [of evidence] clarifying the initial vision which depends on correct and relevant understanding of the Islamic Sharia in relation to the position of non-Muslims in Muslim society, and the matter ultimately remains bound by the Sharia texts without addition or subtraction.

The Vision of Islamic Discourse for Non-Muslims in Egypt
As explained above, the Sharia texts provide the decisive criterion and ruling in this matter. Islam does not accept the bidding that abandons its commands and rulings. Furthermore the vision of the Islamic discourse belongs to Islam and its reference sources, headed by the Quran and the Sunna.

In the course of history the Islamic Reform Movement, from the age of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani until today, has not done anything to harm the Copts in Egyptian society or to detract from their affairs. The martyr teacher (Hassan al-Bana) considered that the sacred words:

 ‘Say – we believe in Allah and in that (the Quran) which has been revealed to us, and what was revealed to Abraham…’ [al-Baqarah: 136]

This meant that the children of the single nation - Muslims and Christians – are united, and that Islam secured this unity as a holy religious quality. God the Merciful emphasizes that we are with our brothers the Copts. We consider ourselves to be Arabs since we all speak the Arabic language and operate in that language and as long as we are Arabs, it is natural that we appeal to Arab law and not western law with its various French and Belgian sources, with reference to the Society’s call for the application of the laws of the Islamic Sharia.

In answer to a question about the Jiziya, he [al-Bana] said that today it has become a non-issue when all citizens enter into military service and defend their country alike.

In March 2004 the Muslim Brotherhood Society issued an initiative for political reform and clarified in it that the Copts of Egypt are a fundamental part of Egyptian society, and they are partners in the nation and should be guaranteed every freedom of belief and adoration. At the heart of the concern of the brotherhood, which has remained a link over two centuries between the majority Muslim population of Egypt and the Copts, is the desire to enable the Umma to work in unison to build their future and protect it from all forms of division.

It may be understood from these clear words that the citizen is the focal point of rights and obligations in Egyptian society to the complete exclusion of the concept of the Dhimma, and if it is used in Sharia references, then it is a description and not a definition.

In a study presented by Dr ‘Abd al-Mana’am Abu al-Maftuh, a member of the guidance office in the Muslim Brotherhood Society, under the title: ‘The Islamic Concept of Comprehensive Reform’, he said that the citizen in the civic state that the Islamic Reformist trend seeks is the basis of existence in society within a democratic framework, and everyone who consents to this framework is equal to all others, of all ideological and political trends. Complete political and legal equality between all sections of society and its factions is the basis of existence in society with the imposition of full guarantees to protect this equality from any political or doctrinal deviation.

There was also a statement issued under the title: ‘One God; One Nation’, which called for the Copts to come out of their exile and to fully participate in all of the activities of the parties and the political groups since they are Egyptian citizens – as much part of Egypt as the Nile and the pyramids.

In the view of the Islamic Reformist trend, these have been the dominant characteristics of the Egyptian Copts since the beginning of the reformist movement appeals to the Islamic (religious) authority, until the present day.

I would like to clarify certain points quickly:
a) All parties to the nationalist movement, including the Muslim Brotherhood Society, are in agreement that the Egyptian Copts are not a minority. The Arabization of prayers in Egyptian churches was an illustrious act in the history of the Egyptian church – which is considered by all Egyptians to be one of the deep-rooted national institutions.

b) In the history of the Copts, during periods of conquests and occupation, there has been no perversion of the concept of the single national community, and what was the Coptic legion, led by General Yaaqub in 1789 at the time of the French campaign, other than a disunion rejected by the Copts before the Muslims.

c) In the era of Muhammad Ali, the Copts refused Russian patronage in a covenant to guarantee their special protection.

d) The Egyptians universally rejected to grant the Copts a quota, on the basis of which they would be represented in parliament, executive bodies and institutions.

e) The political office for the Muslim Brotherhood Society included 3 Coptic members in the 1940s.

f) The Nationalist Movement now complains of a situation (the general state of asphyxia) that led to the recession of the concept of joint national action in its many social and political forms. This is what led to a moving away from the general scene of public life and this happened clearly in the case of the Copts. This was compounded by the tendency within the Egyptian Church to call for the Church to be the source of civil authority for the Copts and not the state. The Islamic Reformist trend looks forward to a day when the whole of Egyptian society can enjoy a climate of freedom and democracy that incorporates all of the people in the context of national action, free of factionalism and discrimination.

This is the general concept of the Islamists’ view of the Copts of Egypt. They are Egyptian citizens completely equal with their Muslim brothers in all rights and obligations, except that they worship God in their churches.

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 (*) Member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt..