Muhammad and The Jews — Page 38
assigning them a subordinate status with no participation in the life of the Muslim society. · He could have united the An$iir and the Muhiijiriln, who had accepted him as their religious leader into one political group. But it seems at this stage he decided against such a grouping and tried to establish a security-community in which there could be reasonable assurance that its members would not fight each other physically but would settle their disputes by peaceful means. The Apostle's attempts fo create such a community culminated in a document which is called the $a/;ifa!z. l An examination of this document, which was signed in Yathrib between the Muslims from the Quraysh, the various clans of the An$iir and the Jews, shows that it was based on a liberal conception of the rule of law with two simple principles: the safeguarding of individual rights by impartial judicial authority, 2 and the principle of equality before the law. 3 The Arabs of the Jiihiliyah had practically nothing that can be described as positive law. It is common knowledge and therefore needs hardly any proof that the modern sanction of the law, i. e. , a fine or imprisonment for the offender, did not exist. No society is, how- ever, absolutely lawless and the Arab tribes maintained security by the solidarity of the tribal group. If a member of the group was killed, other members of the group avenged him; if a member of the group was in danger, he was supported by other members of the tribe irres- pective of the tight or wrong of the matter in dispute. The working of the lex talionis was, however, modified by the acceptance of weregeld as an alternative. But the system could work only by the solidarity and strength of the kinship group, and by a swift and effective way of settling disputes and paying weregeld. Thus the lex talionis restrained wanton killing and became an important feature of pre- Islamic Arab society. The $a/;ifah sought to provide the basis of positive law. The object of the document was limited to the resolution of conflict without violence. The community thus created is called the ummah. The ummah, is specifically a Qur. ,anic term. It occurs nine times in the Meccan and forty-seven times in the Medinan silrahs. It describes the totality of individuals bound to one another, irrespective of their 1 See below for further discussion of the document. 2 Article 23 of the $a/;ifah, see below. 3 Articles 26-35 of the $al;i[ah, see below. 38. ,