Christian-Muslim interaction in the Prophet’s Sirah and its impact on Peaceful Co-existence with Special Reference to the Christians of Najran

Abstract

“Studying the prophet Muhammad's (peace be on him) history, one comes across several instances when there was Christian-Muslim interaction. Examples begin with the first Muslim migration towards the Christian territory – Abyssinia and ends with sending Muslim preachers to Christian tribes, Prophetic treaties, letters to Christian governors and Emperors and dialogue with delegations like the Christians of Najrān. The paper will start with a brief introduction of the historical presence of Eastern Christianity with different denominations in the Arabian Peninsula, who had covered the areas of Internal Arab, Bahrain, ‘Ammān, Yemen and Iraq. It will discuss the nature ofearlyChristian-Muslim interactions with them briefly with special reference to the Christians of Najran because itwas the first ever regular interaction between Muslims and Christians. Therefore, this incident has an academic and historic importance; we will explore who were these people- their religious or political status? What brought them to the table of dialogue with Muslims? What issues they had in their minds to discuss with the Holy Prophet? During the discussion, what kind of attitude they showed and how the Holy Prophet and His companions responded to that? Why they signed a peace treaty? What were the clauses of the treaty? Had it an impact on peaceful co-existence? Which model of dialogue can we extract from these events? At end, the paper will present the opinions of some prominent western Christian scholars and historians of Islam to see how this incident has been narrated in Christian sources. And will conclude with asserting the best pluralistic approach that has ever been practiced by the founder of any religion. Both the classical Islamic and contemporary Christian sources have been consulted.”