You brothers of monkeys, Allah has brought His vengeance upon you!
The Life of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq
Appendix 4. The Charter of Medina
The text of the Charter of Medina
Also known as the Constitution of Medina, this charter was a treaty drawn up by the prophet Muhammad with the tribes of Medina, including three Jewish tribes, the Beni Qaynuka, the Beni al-Nadir, and the Beni Qurayza, after his arrival in Yathrib [now Medina] in 622CE.
The text of the Charter is taken directly from: A. Guillaume: The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah. First published by Oxford University Press, 1955, pp 231-233.
The Jews reject Muhammad’s claims to prophethood
By the time of the Treaty, it had become clear to Muhammad that the Jews of Medina would never accept him as a prophet. They despised his Khazraj followers as illiterate and warring tribesmen, whilst mocking him greatly for his own illiteracy and ignorance. They refused to show his companions the text of the Torah [the scriptures known by Christians as the Old Testament], and the Talmud [scholarly commentaries upon the text of their scriptures].
The Jews also completely denied Muhammad’s claim that the Arab god Al-Lah [a moon god of the Kabah previously associated with three major Arab goddesses, Al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat], was the same god as their own God of Abraham, Jehovah.
When Muhammad started claiming that he was a prophet foretold in both the Torah and the Christian Gospels, and that King David and King Solomon were faithful and infallible Prophets of Islam alongside John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, and that both Jews and Christians had somehow falsified their own ancient scriptures to hide this supposed Truth, his claims were met with contempt and derision.
In fact, the Jews of Medina later preferred to be exiled or killed by Muhammad rather than submit to his new composite religion of Islam.
The dual purpose of the treaty
By drafting this treaty with the Jews, Muhammad ensured their alliance with him in the event of any revenge attack on Medina by the Quraysh for the raids on camel caravans that he was already planning in order to fund his destitute emigrant companions. At the same time, he ensured that any perceived breach of the treaty would enable him to attack the Jews on the slightest suspicion of unwillingness or treachery.
The first paragraph reveals the other main purpose of the treaty. This was to unify the Emigrants [Muhammad’s Muslim companions from Mecca] with the Ansar or Helpers [the Muslim converts from the Aus and Khazraj], into one umma [community] and fighting force of Believers ‘to the exclusion of all (other) men.’
‘In the name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful.’
This is a document from Muhammad the Prophet [governing the relations] between the Believers and Muslims of Quraysh and Yathrib, and those who followed them and joined them and laboured with them. They are one community [umma] to the exclusion of all men.
The Quraysh emigrants according to their present custom shall pay the bloodwit within their number and shall redeem their prisoners with the kindness and justice common among Believers. The Beni Auf according to their present custom shall pay the bloodwit they paid in heathenism; every section shall redeem its prisoners with the kindness and justice common among Believers. The Beni Saida, the Beni al-Harith, and the Beni Jusham, and the Beni al-Najjar likewise. The Beni Amr b. Auf, the Beni al-Nabit and the Beni al-Aus likewise.
Believers shall not leave anyone destitute among them by not paying his redemption money or bloodwit in kindness.
A Believer shall not take as an ally the freedman of another Muslim against him. The God-fearing Believers shall be against the rebellious or he who seeks to spread injustice, or sin or animosity, or corruption between Believers; the hand of every man shall be against him even if he be a son of one of them.
A Believer shall not slay a Believer for the sake of an unbeliever, nor shall he aid an
unbeliever against a Believer. Allah’s protection is one, the least of them may give protection to a stranger on their behalf. Believers are friends one to the other to the exclusion of outsiders.
To the Jew who follows us belong help and equality. He shall not be wronged nor shall his enemies be aided.
The peace of the Believers is indivisible. No separate peace shall be made when Believers are fighting in the way of Allah. Conditions must be fair and equitable to all. In every foray a rider must take another behind him. The Believers must avenge the blood of one another shed in the way of Allah. The God-fearing Believers enjoy the best and most upright guidance.
No polytheist shall take the property of person of Quraysh under his protection nor shall he intervene against a Believer. Whoever is convicted of killing a Believer without good reason shall be subject to retaliation unless the next of kin is satisfied [with blood-money], and the Believers shall be against him as one man, and they are bound to take action against him.
It shall not be lawful to a Believer who holds by what is in this document and believes in Allah and the Last Day to help an evil-doer or to shelter him. The curse of Allah and His anger on the Day of Resurrection will be upon him if he does, and neither repentance nor ransom will be received from him. Whenever you differ about a matter it must be referred to Allah and to Muhammad.
The Jews shall contribute to the cost of war so long as they are fighting alongside the Believers. The Jews of the Beni Auf are one community with the Believers (the Jews have their religion and the Muslims have theirs), their freedmen and their persons except those who behave unjustly and sinfully, for they hurt but themselves and their families.
The same applies to the Jews of the Beni al-Najjar, Beni al-Harith, Beni Saida, Beni Jusham, Beni al-Aus, Beni Tha'laba, and the Jafna, a clan of the Thalaba and the Beni al-Shutayba. Loyalty is a protection against treachery. The freedmen of Thalaba are as themselves. The close friends of the Jews are as themselves.
None of them shall go out to war save with the permission of Muhammad, but he shall not be prevented from taking revenge for a wound. He who slays a man without warning slays himself and his household, unless it be one who has wronged him, for Allah will accept that.
The Jews must bear their expenses and the Muslims their expenses. Each must help the other against anyone who attacks the people of this document. They must seek mutual advice and consultation, and loyalty is a protection against treachery. A man is not liable for his ally’s misdeeds. The wronged must be helped. The Jews must pay with the Believers so long as war lasts. Yathrib shall be a sanctuary for the people of this document.
A stranger under protection shall be as his host doing no harm and committing no crime. A woman shall only be given protection with the consent of her family.
If any dispute or controversy likely to cause trouble should arise it must be referred to Allah and to Muhammad the apostle of Allah. Allah accepts what is nearest to piety and goodness in this document.
The Quraysh and their helpers shall not be given protection. The contracting parties are bound to help one another against any attack on Yathrib.
[[f they are called to make peace and maintain it they must do so; and if they make a similar demand on the Muslims it must be carried out except in the case of a holy war. Every one shall have his portion from the side to which he belongs. The Jews of al-Aus, their freedmen and themselves have the same standing with the people of this document in pure loyalty from the people of this document. Loyalty is a protection against treachery. He who acquires aught acquires it for himself. Allah approves of this document. This deed will not protect the unjust and the sinner.]
The man who goes forth to fight and the man who stays at home in the city is safe unless he has been unjust and sinned.
Allah is the protector of the good and God-fearing man and Muhammad is the apostle of Allah.’
The binding of all Muslims into one umma [community or brotherhood]
In this important treaty, Muhammad affirms the binding of all Muslims into a separate entity from the rest of mankind. Believers are henceforth not permitted to consort with or have any friendships with those outside the faith of Islam.
Believers are now effectively blood-brothers in Islam, and membership of this cult supersedes any previous bloodwit, bond, or alliance held between a Believer and an unbeliever. ‘Believers are friends to each other to the exclusion of outsiders.’
Here, the definition of Believers as those who ‘believe in Allah and the Last Day’ is to differentiate the Muslims from the Jews and pagans who rejected the fundamental Islamo-Christian belief in the Day of Judgement - the return of Isa/Jesus, the destruction of the Dajjal/Anti-Christ, and the casting of the unbelievers/wicked into the everlasting fires of Hell.
The subjugation of the Jews to Muhammad as ruler of Yathrib/Medina
The crucial aim of the treaty was to ensure that these ‘outsiders’ in Medina [the Jews and other non-Muslims] would sign up to fight alongside Muhammad and his new Muslim umma [community] against any outside forces that might attack the city. ‘The contracting parties are bound to help one another against any attack on Yathrib.’
The treaty also makes it clear that in the event of an attack on Medina, ‘the Jews must bear their expenses and the Muslims their expenses.’ This was important, because Muhammad and the emigrants were almost destitute at the time, and reliant on the hospitality of the rough, quarrelsome tribesmen of the Ansar, whilst the Jews were People of the Book, better educated, skilled craftsmen, and cultivators of date palms, well-established for generations and comparatively wealthy.
Finally, and most importantly, the Jews, who had to sign this treaty to save their lives and property, were accepting Muhammad as God’s representative on earth, arbitrator in all disputes, and de facto ruler of Medina.
Within the space of five years, by 627CE, Muhammad had rid himself of all three tribes of Jews in Medina, by accusing them of breaking the Treaty, besieging them in their forts, destroying their date-palms, and exiling them or massacring the men and selling the women and children into slavery in exchange for weapons.