A Short History of The Jewish Presence in Medina - Our Prophet 6 - Foundations Of Islamic State

The next challenge was what? The external challenge! Because in Medina there were numerous Jewish tribes and the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih, did not want any problems with the Jewish tribes in Medina. So, to address that, the Prophet makes a historic document with the Jews. Let's first examine the history of the Jews in Medina. What brought them to Medina?

It's not known exactly when the Jews migrated to Arabia or how they ended up there, but it seems that the first wave of significant migration to Hijaz, to Arabia, came in the year 589, Before Christ BC, when Nabukhadnasar invaded their holy lands, killed them, took many of them as prisoners and he fought them in a very, very aggressive war. So, we are talking, you know, five to 600 years before Isa, alayhi as-salam. This is in the year 589 BC.

So, when their temple was attacked, when Jerusalem was attacked, many of them had to flee. Those who survived had to flee. Some of those who fled, they came south to Arabia, and they came to the Yathrib area and they settled there. This was the first wave of Jewish immigration. The second wave of Jewish immigration came after the Jewish Roman War, when the Romans ran, sacked Jerusalem, raised the temple, you know, between the years 66 to 70 AD. This is after Prophet Isa, alayhi as-salam.

The Jews lost their holy land, and many of them had to flee. And this was really the biggest Jewish diaspora incident that happened in their history. So, some of them also decided to go south to Arabia, to Hijaz, and they inhabited those areas. The third wave of immigration came in the year 132, when Adrian, the Emperor, he launched a war and expelled many of them from Palestine. So, throughout those centuries, there were waves of Jewish immigration who came and settled in Arabia.

A lot of them came to the Yathrib area. Now, the Yathrib area was inhabited by numerous Arab tribes as well. Some of them were the descendants of the Amaliqa, the Amalekites. The three main Jewish groups who were living in Medina at the time were Banu Quraydha, number one, Banu an-Nadhir, number two, Banu Qaynaqa. These three were the main largest Jewish tribes around the city of Medina.

Banu Quraydha, you know, in English, they usually write them Bani Qurayza, right? It's Banu Quraydha in Arabic. The second is Banu an-Nadhir. Banu An-Nadhir, the dhad ukht as-sad. Banu an-Nadhir. In English, they also write them as Banu an-Nazir, you'll find that in some translations. And the third one is Banu Qaynaqa. So, the tribe of Quraydha, the tribe of Nadhir and the tribe of Qaynaqa. These were the main Jewish tribes who existed around the city of Medina.

So, these were the first three tribes who settled in Medina. They congregated in fertile areas, they engaged in agriculture and farming, and they were very successful in what they did. They were at peace with the Arabs. They did not want to go to war with any of the Arabs. And in fact, they would actually pay Arab tribes in return for them not to be raided. Because, you know, the Arab mentality was, if I have power, I'm going to raid you and confiscate your property. So, they would constantly paying money to the surrounding Arab tribes so they would not be raided by them.

So, relatively, they lived peacefully with the Arabs at the time. Their communities were very enclosed. They were exclusive. They would not really intermingle that much outside their group. And they built numerous forts and fortresses to protect themselves.

Some of those tribes from these three that we mentioned, they claimed noble ancestry. We come from the lines of important rabbis, scholars from Bani Isra'il. In fact, some of them claim to trace their lineage to Prophets from Bani Isra'il. That's what they would tell the Arabs to kind of give themselves that prominence.

Now, these were the Jewish tribes. Now, the Arabs who lived around Medina mainly came from the Aws and Khazraj. Historians tell us that the Aws and Khazraj originally came from Yemen, from the area of Saba. Now, the reason why they migrated to Medina is because a historic flood hit their town. You know, that famous dam was, I forgot the name of the dam, Mahrab? Yes, Sa'd Mahrab. The famous dam, the very important dam of Marib was broken, it was compromised, so it caused a devastating flood such that they were displaced.

So, they had to migrate to other areas. So, they came to Medina, the tribe of Khazraj and the tribe of Aws. So, originally they were Yemeni Arab, and then they settled in the city of Medina. When they came to Medina, they were not that skilled, so they started working for the Jews over there around the city of Medina. And the Jews, they wanted laborers to work the farms and work the fields. So, they actually found this a good opportunity to give them work.

But the Jews, they controlled the agriculture, and they also controlled the businesses and the economy of the area. And one way by which they made a lot of money was by usury and interest loans. Wherever they went, this was like their trademark. They were very very adamant in charging interest for loans, whereas a lot of Arabs did not do that initially, and they learned it from them.

So, basically they had a lot of power in the area. Initially, they would mistreat the Aws and Khazraj, because the Jews had a lot of prestige and power, and they controlled the economy. They would mistreat them. But over the years, when the Aws and Khazraj became more prominent, they were able to establish themselves, they now had more power, so the Jews had to respect them.

Sometimes they would betray them. The Jews made a pact with the Arabs, those Arab tribes, the Aws and Khazraj, that you know we are united, if anyone attacks us here in the Yathrib area, we will will stand united and repel them. They signed, you know, they made those verbal agreements, but then sometimes the Jews would break those agreements.

In one of those violations, they actually killed many of the Aws and Khazraj and they had to actually reach out to foreign tribes to come and help them to restore balance. But generally speaking, generally speaking, they lived peacefully with the Arabs and they tried not to go to war. But here's what they would do. They had the policy of divide and conquer, those Jewish tribes. Have you heard of the historic fights between Aws and Khazraj? The last of them, before Islam, lasted 120 years. And it ended really with the presence of the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih.

The Jewish tribes realized, you know what? It doesn't work if we just raid them and kill them and take their property. Let's divide and conquer. So what they did, they made multiple alliances with them, and they would instigate one tribe against another tribe. For instance, we find that Banu Quraydha and Banu an-Nadhir, they made an alliance with the Aws and Banu Qaynaqa made an alliance with the Khazraj. And their agreement was, let's instigate them against one another. And that's one reason why the wars between Aws and Khazraj lasted for a century, because the Jewish tribes would constantly instigate them. And this was very unfortunate.

So, in the early days, when the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih, arrived in Medina, there was a general understanding between the Muslims and the Jewish tribes. Because first of all, the Muslims were monotheists and the Jews were also monotheists, right? They were not idol-worshipping. So, this was like one common point that they had with the Muslims. Secondly, they had an agreement with the Aws and Khazraj. So, when the Prophet first arrived Medina, there was no tension. Everything was normal. There was mutual respect between two sides. And in fact, the Jews initially were happy that the Prophet came to Medina. Because they realized, now we are monotheists and these Muslims, this new faith is also monotheism. It recognizes our prophets, the Jewish prophets.

So, if we become a strong empire, maybe we can stand in the face of those Roman emperors, even the Christians, who are persecuting the Jews. Maybe we will start a powerful government here. But, then they realized that their plan, which was to have the Prophet follow their traditions, this was their initial plan, right? We have a long history, we are going to pressure him because we've got so much knowledge, we are going to pressure him to come and join us. This was their plan.

When they saw, no, this man is independent. He really has another religion, and he's not going to follow their path, they became hostile to him. So, in those early days, they were at peace with each other. The Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih, in order to avoid divisions and problems and to act as a responsible community leader, he signs a historical document with the Jews.

This is called the Constitution of Medina, or the Charter of Medina. And historians and critics consider this to be one of the most important documents in history. Way before the West started to come up with the idea of having a constitution, rights, religious freedom, the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih, instituted that in Medina. So he signed that very important historical document.

Next week, in sha Allah, we will examine this document. Because it's very important and most of us are not aware of this document of Medina. We will go through the document. What are the conditions that the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih, stipulated, how the Prophet recognized these Jewish tribes? He granted them the freedom to worship according to their values.

But then, unfortunately, as we shall see later, the Jewish tribes, generally speaking, did not honour the document after signing it. So, we will examine the tribes who signed them and we will walk through it, it's very interesting. This requires a separate discussion to analyse the tenets of this constitution of Medina.

And this really shows you the greatness of the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih. 7th century Arabia, backwards mentality, tribalism. The Prophet builds a state and it's based on a wonderful constitution, that is based on justice, based on freedom, and based on truth.