Kindness to Christians: Separating the Chaff from the Grain

In every religion there are people of peace and people of violence. Let the former continue to reach out to their likes from other faiths and guard against the latter who inadvertently lead to scenes of bloodshed.

Wishing people well is kindness which the Quran enjoins. That’s the view of moderate scholars like Sheikh Yusuf al-Qardawi. It is better than wishing them bad. Never get tired of bridge building. “Build, do not destroy”, said the Wur’an; and “do not underestimate the value of a good, even a smile,” says a Hadith.

The Code

The response of Islam to people of other faiths is the same. Repel their hate with kindness. That is why the verse permitting kindness to even non-believers that have not transgressed against Muslims was preceded by this expression of hope:

“It is possible that God may place affection between you and your enemies among them. God is able. God if oft-forgiving, most merciful.” (60: 7)

The extremist will jump to the generalization that Nigerian Christians hate and killed Muslims from Kafanchan to Numan. But Islam is against any form of generalization. The majority of Christians in this country have not killed any Muslim. They have not displaced any. So they have fulfilled the condition that demands that we be kind and just to them.

“God has not forbidden you from those that did not fight you in religion and has not expelled you from your homes to be kind and just to them. God loves the just.” (60: 8 )

“However, God has (only) forbidden you from being allies to those that fought you for your religion and expelled you from your homes or assisted others in expelling you. Whoever befriends them among you is the unjust.” (60: 9)

Lovely. 👌🏻

The above code is arguably the finest article that any international agreement can contain. It preceded the Geneva Convention by fourteen centuries.

Yet, we have Muslim brothers that fail to appreciate this today. They generalize and think that every Christian in Nigeria is an enemy and would wish that all channels of communication, dialogue and understanding are closed or, at best, consider it a waste of time.

Separation

That is against the spirit of Islam. A muslim must be intelligent enough to separate the grain from the chaff in all affairs.

One, in this case, there are so many communities that have never witnessed any Muslim-Christian conflict. So why include them among those on the other side of your steel wall? Would you then be different from Donald Trump?

Two, even among communities that such bloody conflicts occur, what is the percentage of those who partake in the killings and expulsion of Muslims in Nigeria? We have witnessed many Christians hiding Muslims in their compounds until they could leave safely. There must also be many who would wish to do same but not strong-minded enough to take the risk. We had many that were shedding tears at the sight of the horror but were helpless. So obvious is this fact that mercenaries had to be imported by organizers of mayhem from other communities in order to neutralize the strong bond of good neighborliness.

After discounting such groups, you will only have the actual culprits to contend with: The ring leaders, including some governors, chiefs, pastors and few among the elites.

Even here, you must discount the misguided youths, who were instigated by the propaganda of fear and hate, or motivated by the reward of money, to destroy Muslim lives and property. After the carnage is over, many of these youths come back to their senses and interact freely with Muslims as if nothing happened. It is here that Muslim’s kindness would appeal to them and his justice would encourage them to develop a more neutral, if not sympathetic, stand on Islam.

History

We must remember that Muslims have gone through these situations thousands of times in the past, here and in the rest of the Muslim World. That is the fate of any growing religion. Islam is young, very young, compared to most other religions, like Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and even Christianity. Give Islam six hundred years from now, it will catch up with Christianity, after it has treaded every inch of the path of the latter, as suggested in a Hadith.

However, instead of building walls in the past, Muslims have negotiated the path of settling among others in both superior and subordinate positions. In some instances, they survived massacres like the ones we have seen in Kafanchan, Zangon Kataf, Zonkwa, Plateau, Mambilla and Numan. In others, they enjoyed the protection of others, including Christians, like King Negus of Abyssinia, who was the first to offer such sanctuary to Muslims in the earliest days of Islam when pagan Arabs in Mecca were persecuting them. After listening to a passage from the Qur’an describing the position of Jesus and Mary in Islam, he said: “The difference between your religion and ours is just this”, and he drew a line in the sand. He, therefore, instantly declared that Muslims can dwell peacefully in his kingdom without any harm.

Today, “Christian” Europe serves as the safe haven for persecuted Muslims. It is their resort when they are oppressed in their own countries by their own fellow Muslims, rulers who cannot tolerate their “fundamentalist” ideas (Egypt, for example) or subjected them to economic deprivation and war (like Syria) or when they flee from the tyranny of sectarian groups (like ISIS Iraq) - so long as the migrant Muslims do not pose a security threat to their host countries.

If any Muslim individual breaches his terms of residency in Christian Europe, that country, by the standard of Islam itself which we quoted above, has every right to expel him or punish him according to its laws. That is justice. Islam cannot condone the bombing of the innocent in subways or running over them with trucks on walkways. This cowardice and wickedness was never part of its history.

So, in all, a Muslim must always carry the compass of moderation, kindness and justice. These are the qualities that endeared Muslims to their erstwhile enemies throughout the history of Islam. In our West Africa, it was not Jihad that earned it its first converts. It was the conduct of Muslims traders.

In fact, nowhere has Jihad even converted anyone since voluntary conviction is prerequisite to admission into Islam. Jihad, if it goes beyond its primary purpose of defence, enabled only political authority as all nations seek, in past and present, in order to achieve their set objectives. For the nation of Islam, the objective is not imperialism like the Tatars and recent European colonialists, or sectarian bigotry like the Crusaders: it is to enable the undistorted delivery of the message of Islam to citizens of the conquered land. Without capturing the appropriate political apparatus of the state, the entrenched old tyrannical order will not allow a new idea to flourish. Political Science, 101.

This is what consistently differentiated a truly Islamic conquest from others. When the Tatars invaded Abbasid Baghdad in 1258, blood filled the Euphrates. Baghdad was “stormed, looted and burnt.”, recounted a modern historian. Earlier, when the Crusaders took over Jerusalem in the 1099, they massacred thousands, including Jews and Christians of the Eastern Church, not to mention Muslims. But when Omar bn Al-Khattab and Saladin conquered the same city in 630 A.D. and 1187 A.D. respectively, it was devoid of vengeance and unnecessary bloodshed, just as the conquest of Mecca by the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

Islam absolves itself completely from anything extra to this. Muslim history is replete with sultans and emirs who many times invaded non-Muslim territories for economic motives of gold, slaves, etc., as Europeans conquerors ravaged the Americas in the name of Christianity a Africa for slaves and riches. There were many such instances in 19th Century Northern Nigeria too. That was selfish, not Islam. We must not mistake one for the other.

That is why a number of reputable scholars today believe that the only necessary form of Jihad is self-defence Jihad, because in addition to various multilateral non-aggression pacts signed by every Muslim country, there exist various peaceful means to propagate Islam, undistorted. Almost every citizen of the planet can be reached through electronic and digital means. It is left to Muslims to exploit such channels to deliver the true message of Islam, “with wisdom and fair exhortation”. Individuals are free to accept the message or reject it as democracy guarantees freedom of religion. If Muslim converts or anyone cannot practice Islam fully, they can migrate to its land. Simple.

This is the stand of Islam vis-a-vis adherents of other faiths. It commands the principle of reciprocity, equity, kindness, charity, justice and individual’s accountability, not towards fellow Muslims alone but to all people and living things, and not as voluntary acts left to the discretion of Muslims but as a religious obligation that they must abide by.

In the same vein, Islam eschews lewdness, wickedness and transgression, again not only against fellow Muslims, but against any human or living thing.

It is by no coincidence that Muslims all over the world are reminded of these principles and obligations weekly at the end of every Friday Congregation, in every neighborhood, city, town, or village. The Friday sermon almost always ends with this all encompassing Qur’anic verse:

“God enjoins justice and kindness, and giving (charity) to relatives and forbids lewdness and abomination and wickedness. He exhorts you in order that you may take heed.

“And fulfill the covenant of God and break not your oaths after the asseveration of them, and after you have made God surety over you. Lo! God knows what you do.” (14: 90-91)

Conclusion

In a nutshell, I will treat every person, including every Christian, according to these universal principles of Islam. On the one hand, if I am convinced that he is among those that plan and execute acts of aggression against Muslims or humanity generally, I will not befriend him even if he were a Muslim, but treat him with the justice that the situation demands. He is a bad egg. I will target him for the law that will rid the society of his wickedness. He is the chaff.

On the other hand, If he as an individual is not among the perpetrators or promoters of terror against Muslims and humanity, I will be kind to him, just, sincere, honest and wishing him well in whatever he undertakes - Christmas or otherwise. I will not wish him evil instead. Being a fellow Nigerian citizen, his happiness would be mine, just as I will share in his agony and loss, willingly or otherwise. Happiness and pain, like wealth, are shared in one way or another by members of a common geography or nation. In religion, he will practice his, and I practice mine. He is the grain.

I must constantly learn to differentiate the two categories and never to generalize against all. This is Islam, the religion of peace that I believe in and endeavor to practice. If yours is to the contrary, you are on your own. Please count me out.

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
28 December 2017