Minorities in an Islamic State — Page 27
27 cannot bring my brother back to life, the blood money they are giving me, will, to some extent, sustain the survivors and therefore, I have decided to pardon him". Hadrat ‘ Al i ra replied: "It is all right if you really mean it, you know better. However, the policy of our government most emphatically is, that the blood of a Dhimm i citizen is as valuable as our own blood and his blood money is equal to ours". 34 Once a son of ‘ Amar bin al- ‘ As , the governor of Egypt, gave a beating to a Dhimm i citizen without any justification. The incident was reported to Hadrat ‘ Umar ra. Under his orders the governor ’ s son was publicly beaten by the Egyptian Dhimm i. ‘ Umar ra also declared in his order to the governor: ْ م ن َّ ذ ْ ک َّم َّ ت َّ ع ْ ب د ت َّم َّ الن َّاس َّ و ْ ق َّد َّ و َّ ل ْ د ت ْ ہ م َّ ا َّ م ہ ات ْ ہ َّم ْ ا َّ ح ر ار ا "Since when have you taken people as slaves although they are born free. " 35 The occasion on which the Quranic verse: ْ َّ َلَّ تَّكن و ۙ لِلْخ َّٓاىِنِی َّْ خَّصِيْما "And be not thou a d isputer for the fa ithl e ss " (4:106) was revealed is the following: Once a Muslim stole something from someone ’ s house. Fearing exposure, he threw away the stolen property in a Jew ’ s house, which was recovered on