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S1E11 - What is the “Constitution” of Medina? | DoubleTake
The document known as the ‘Constitution of Medina’ has been described as the first-ever written constitution in human history. Some attempt to use it to defend and formulate their political views, while others question its authenticity and significance. How important is the ‘Constitution of Medina’ to our view of an ideal society? What were the major goals and themes of this document? How relevant are they to our practice and understanding of Islam today?
In this episode, host Mohamad Zaoud talks to Dr. Ovamir Anjum, author of the Yaqeen Institute paper “The ‘Constitution’ of Medina: Translation, Commentary, and Meaning Today.”
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This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. The document known as the constitution of Medina has been described as the first ever written constitution in human history. Some attempt to use it to defend and formulate their political views while others question its authenticity and significance. How important is the constitution of Medina to our view of an ideal society? What were the major goals and themes of this document and how relevant are they to our practice and understanding of Islam today? Welcome to Double Take, a podcast by Yaqeen Institute about the questions and ideas around Islam and Muslims that give us pause. Remember to subscribe to the show on YouTube, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. I'm Muhammad Zahra and today on the show we're diving into the document popularly known as the constitution of Medina. With me is Dr. Awaymer Anjum, author of the Yaqeen Institute paper, The Constitution of Medina, Translation, Commentary and Meaning Today. Dr. Awamer Anjum is the Imam Khattab Endowed Chair of Islamic Studies at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Toledo. He has a PhD in Islamic intellectual history, he's got a master's in social sciences, a master's in computer science and a bachelor's in nuclear engineering and physics. Dr. Awamer, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah and welcome to Double Take. Wa alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. Thank you so much, Dr. for joining us. I'm really looking forward to the episode today. Just to kick off, for those of us simple people like myself who hasn't studied nuclear science, what is the constitution of Medina? I hear it in soundbites, I hear it from politicians in say Tunisia or academics who reference it or people who are trying to kind of dive
into it from a political lens. What is the document and what's in it? Alright, so Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulullah. The document which is known as Sahifat Medina or Kitab Medina, the writing or script or the scroll of Medina, if you will, is said to be a document that contains the treaty that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ concluded when he came to Medina right after the Hijrah. That is the typical view but scholars from very early on have questioned exactly when it was written and some of its contents. But its significance for Muslims, particularly contemporary Muslims, is that it shows how eager the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was to make peace and to have fair and equitable coexistence with people of other faith. And as a document it has this attraction that it is concise, it's one simple document that sounds like what modern constitutions of nation states are. And I think that that is perhaps the reason why it has acquired this oversized significance in the eyes of Muslims, which is why I'm going to be questioning some of the assumptions around it, but not the document itself, which I think is fairly
established that it is an authentic document and it does in fact undoubtedly show the Prophet's commitment ﷺ to fairness, to diplomacy, to dealing with conflict through negotiation and clarity and in fact also with written agreements rather than arbitrary or changing norms. Fair enough. So based on what I read in the article and some of my really basic research, are we talking about, and correct me if I'm wrong, we're talking about a document that's say two, three, four pages long, say 50 lines or so, and its main kind of themes, one surrounds Muslims in Medina, the other one surrounds Muslims' interactions with non-Muslims in Medina, and its general kind of message is that of how to interact in a diverse society with multiple communities. Is that kind of the general understanding of the constitution? Perfect, right. You summarized it really well. It is a document about coexistence and about also identity. Now, I guess there are two parts. I'm going to talk a little bit about the document and then my article which presents a translation and commentary on the document and then contemporary uses and abuses of it, but let's first talk about the actual document. As you said, it is a couple of pages long and there are various versions of it and in
terms of authenticity, I'm going to set that question aside for now, but its content, what is it? It has two parts. First part is a treaty among the believers, al-mu'minin, right? Basically what responsibilities do Muslims have to each other? Who are Muslims? So in that sense, the document begins with a really, really important declaration which we find confirmed in the Quran as well, which is that all believers are one ummah, min doonin nas, to the exclusion of all other people. So it defines something called an ummah and that ummah is the ummah of believers, the believers in Muhammad ﷺ in the Quran, and it declares a purpose of this ummah, right? So this is an ummah that the very first and second clauses say this ummah is ummah of believers, anyone who joins us and does jihad with us, right? So an important thing right from the beginning is struggling in the path of Allah. So this is the constitution of the ummah. It's an ummah or a community that struggles in the path of Allah and then the second part of the document is a treaty with the Jews which is called muwad'ah or truce which suggests that there may be some conflict before or possibility of a conflict. So the Prophet ﷺ establishes this peace through this document. The first part of the document is about relations among Muslims, among various tribes of Ansar and then among
the Mujahideen as one of the groups. So it basically takes a pre-Islamic institution of aqilah which were basically self-help groups and it confirms them. Basically you can, people of Ansar, people of Medina, you can keep your aqilah the way you had before and all the Muslims who had come now from Mecca because of persecution for their religion, these muhajireen that had come, they all form one aqilah and what their duties are to each other and one emphasis you find in the first part is equality of the believers and fairness so that nobody is going to be overburdened with the tough tasks, the dirty work. There is going to be fairness and people are going to, if there is a dispute, people are going to come to the Prophet ﷺ. The second part is the treaty with the Jews and that one is often what is taken to be the most significant part of the document. Before reading your article, frankly, I know the constitution of Medina as something that is paraded amongst Muslims, both those who are political activists or even religious scholars who show it as an example of the Prophet's progressiveness and how he moved humanity forward. Now there are a couple of clouds that after reading your article have kind of featured around the article and the first one is around the authenticity so I just want to turn the corner on that if that's okay with you. Is the document authentic because I've seen that there are questions on its authenticity and if it's not so authentic then do we take anything from it? So those are great questions and the short answer to the first part is it authentic?
The answer is in Islam we have a very sophisticated system of measuring authenticity so usually the answer to this question is not yes and no. There is a highest level of authenticity which is the Quran and then there are reports that are multiple narrators from the Prophet ﷺ and they are all authentic or reliable narrators and so on and then there are reports that do not reach the level of multiple independent narrations but you have one or only a few narrations and then you have narrations that are weak meaning that they are missing either the whole Isnat or they are missing a link. In this case for example the narrator, the chains that we have for this are, they fall in the realm of weak. So in that sense if you were to say a typical scholar who is sort of deriving ahkam and sharia would look at this and say this is a weak hadith and I can reject it. However if you look at it as an historical fact or historical question, now there are certain things about which the only way for us to know whether something happened or not is whether the report is authentic or not but there are certain other types of reports that have further corroboration in the way that people behaved and in the way that especially the seerah literature is written which shows sort of a more continuous narrative. So if you put all of these things together it is a weak narration that is corroborated by hadith or seerah, sorry by seerah and history
tarikh literature and that is why most scholars take it to be authentic. But there is first there are different levels if you will of acceptance. One there is absolutely no disagreement among scholars that when the Prophet came to Medina he made a deal with the Jews. There is absolutely no disagreement. The question is whether that was written down in a document that is what we see as the constitution. Absolutely. So that is the question that we are talking about. We are not talking about whether there was an agreement. It is whether what we have is what the agreement was. The final word. Right. But in your research having studied the histories and having studied basically not just the seerah but also all the relevant references to this document after the Prophet and in the first few generations you still find it relevant and most scholars find it authentic. That is correct. I find the document to be authentic as do most scholars that are working on the seerah. I don't know of any significant scholar of the seerah who has rejected it completely. Okay. How for someone who is a young say activist who is trying to kind of propel society forward in Western society in Muslim communities how relevant is this document to me? Everything that the Prophet ﷺ said and did is relevant right as a believer because what he did is the centre of understanding and the Qur'an is a commentary on what the Prophet ﷺ is doing and saying so every word of the Prophet ﷺ especially something as significant as this is important
for the scholarly purpose for the spiritual purpose of living and following the Prophet ﷺ. However, what I question in my article is the many abuses to which this document is subjected. That's why I first began the title of the article with air quotes the constitution is when we use the word constitution we mean something by it like it's usually a constraint on the powers of the sovereign. But this document is written at a time when the Prophet ﷺ does not wield complete power over Medina. Okay, okay fair enough. So like typically a constitution I guess and I from my understanding sorry to interrupt you has some it tries to limit the power of the monarch or the leader and he also seeks to guarantee certain rights to the followers of that monarch or leader and so you're saying the Prophet ﷺ didn't really have power when he walked into Medina as such like he wasn't the leader of the full society there were still deals to be broken etc. Is that correct? Yes, so that is why the Prophet ﷺ there is nothing that would limit the powers of the Prophet ﷺ because he doesn't have power. So this is like what you're dealing with is he is establishing order by making deals with the main power brokers and secondly he is a Prophet ﷺ and there is absolutely no ruler right in in Islam particularly in Sunni Islam that can claim to be infallible and who has the right to be followed which you know which is exactly the first thing that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq says when he is elected the first thing that he
says I'm not the best of you if I'm right follow me if I'm wrong correct me. So basically without the correction or sorry without this declaration of Abu Bakr the constitution of Medina is incomplete for the purpose that we want to use it not that it's incomplete for the purpose that it served at the time but it is not a constitution in the sense that we think of it until you also add the Sunnah the way of the Rashidun Caliphs because it is when you are not a Prophet then you govern then the limitations that you have are entirely different so even if it was written at the end of the Prophet's term ﷺ there would be nothing limiting the power of the Prophet because he's speaking on behalf of God and we simply do not have anyone who can do that after the Prophet ﷺ so that's one big thing that we need to keep in mind when we are thinking about the constitution or the Sahifa of Medina. Whether or not the modern context of the modern kind of definition of constitution is relevant for this particular document and we're saying it's not really that relevant because they're two different things the Prophet ﷺ walked into a society didn't have a power so then if the Prophet ﷺ didn't have power what drove him to broker this deal and what drove him to write this document effectively like what was the context what was he walking into and what was he seeking to achieve through this. He is seeking first in the first part of the document he is making clear to the believers what their rights and duties are to each other and what our mission is as a group that we are here to establish the Deen of Allah that we are we are an Ummah to the exception of
all other people which is the declaration that basically tribalism is secondary if not eliminated from certain considerations that you all belong to different tribes you all the two tribes of Medina, Aus and Khazraj were fighting each other that's all gone you are one body and you had perhaps connections with outsiders before those connections are all secondary they're not gone but they're all secondary to the first identity you have as a member of this Ummah and then the part with the Jews is saying that you have your religion and we're not going to force you force our religion on to you and we are going to we have certain shared interests and we are going and that is to defend Medina from outsiders and we're going to do that together and we're going to spend money together on this what is interesting about this document you know if you compare it to later if you will post prophetic history or later prophetic history is in there is no concept of dhimma here right meaning that non-Muslim minorities are not treated as protected minorities but rather as tribes with whom you have a deal that and so when it really is a question of when there is war instead of Muslims protecting everyone and charging a tax on the protected people you're making a different deal you're basically saying if you share the defense with us then there is going to be no dhimma there is no poll tax rather there is shared
what Dr. why is that distinction important that in the Constitution which we're not calling the Constitution but for the sake of this episode we are Sahifa okay fine so that distinction where in the Sahifa we're talking are we talking to Jews as equals like so they're a different tribe that we're partnering with in Medina versus us later in the Prophet's life we're talking to them as what just help me kind of get my framing correct if you don't mind but what's the distinction here that's a great question and the question of equal citizenship often is comes up when people are discussing the Sahifa and I'm interested in the historical truth and the religious truth rather than whether you find the document progressive or democratic or not right as scholars and followers of the Prophet shall those should not be the first concern questions we ask so is the Sahifa a document that grants equal citizenship to the Jews well the answer that question is their question is wrong there is no citizenship the concept of citizenship is modern right there is no individual citizenship that's given to anyone this is a deal made with a group for its time and for what the Prophet's mission was which is to preach Islam this is an extremely generous principle document that says you keep your religion I keep my religion I'm not going to force my religion on you and in that sense yes there is a measure measure of reciprocity and equality not equal citizenship I'm taking out citizenship as well from our conversation there is equality and fairness right yet the Prophet shall I
sell him is almost working in this document at two levels one as a prophet he's saying I'm preaching the truth this is the truth come join me but if you don't join me I'm not forcing you and you will have rights that and there is going to be this reciprocity and there are later sections in the document that really bring out this reciprocity that you know if Muslims call the Jews to something to make other alliances or to some other agreement or some other common project that the Jews will respond positively or at least you know they promise they will consider it positively and vice versa so let's say Jews have an idea of establishing a market and they come to the Muslims and Muslims now have a duty by this so it's of goodwill that yeah you know what maybe a common market will be a great idea I'm just giving an example the actual section just says anything that Muslims call the Jews to that is good Jews will consider it positively and and vice versa right so it is really an open-ended document that is saying look we're going to have collaboration reciprocity however again as a historian and as a believer you have to look at what the prophet was actually saying when it comes to dealing with the Meccans the Jews do not have a choice to make a deal with them because they have declared war on the Prophet and they have prevented Islam and his mission is Islam first and foremost to establish his and preach his religion and so this document says that making a deal with the Meccans is
not an option that is because that would be treason and at this time the context of this is that the Meccans are in fact trying to use back channels to make a deal with the Jews against the believers so on one side the document is I guess generous to the non-Muslims in the sense that you know where we're working together for a single cause to protect our way protecting Islam but we're also protecting Medina and we're supporting each other in this kind of diverse society but on the other side is like you know caution beware you can't do one two three the least of which dealing with the enemies of the Muslims so in one way it's almost like the document protects certain rights but also limits certain imaginations of those non-Muslims yes it limits the right effectively it limits the possibility of anyone obstructing the dawah obstructing the preaching for which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wasallam came so it says and this is also by the way one thing that we didn't mention is that part of this document are also pagans or you know mushriks who are among the Arab among the Ansar right there are people in their tribes who have not yet converted and they are part party to this treaty so it's not just for the Jews but also for those others and this is of course an early phase in Medina later the mushriks or associationists or idolaters were not considered they were not considered Arab idolaters were not considered party to
the final verses that came in which they were not allowed to live in Medina also outside of Medina or outside of the Hejaz or Arabia the same deal of dhimma could be concluded with them so this actually points us to this other feature of this that this is a relatively early document and certain of its sections were abrogated by later verses. So Dr. Omer in terms of using this document in modern context we have certain politicians that reference it we have certain activists that reference it you are quite critical of how it is used in modern times can you give me an example of how it's misused and what the problem with the general use of this document is in our time? Okay excellent question so first of all let me make the positive statement of what I think that the use of this document is and how it's helpful and how the goals that we have of peaceful coexistence are in fact better served by a holistic reading of the Quran and the Sunnah rather than saying just this one document. We would not accept this idea of taking one hadith of the Prophet and saying this is what I follow and everything else in the Quran and Sunnah is irrelevant to me. If somebody said that we would laugh them out the court like this is what are you talking about man you write one hadith and you think you're a scholar right this is something is a common refrain but oddly we tend to do this with this one document right and if I can
summarize my critique of this use it's this not that the document itself is not valid or it's not interesting or it's not instructive it's all of them. It's just that there's too much emphasis on it. Exactly it's like if somebody who read one hadith and they think that explains everything to them in my view and I show that you know or I suggest that in the document you know of course in my article that there are other verses that are in fact more compassionate more expansive and tolerant than the document that make concessions toward non-Muslims and there are values that in the Prophet's practice on a salat was on that we learn in hadith and we learn in the Quran that are not in the document so what we need is a holistic understanding of the rights that Islam gives to all human beings and the freedoms that Islam gives to all human beings and for that you need to look at the Quran. The Quran of course is the word of Allah right and when I see people displacing the Quran and the Sunnah and the holistic tradition of Islamic jurisprudence by using one document I call foul like that's what I'm saying. Fair enough and then in terms of so that that's your main kind of criticism are there any other misuses like is there something that just like oh my god are they really saying that when they reference this document? Absolutely. I'm sure there is I'm trying to pull it from you. Absolutely so I'll give you two abuses almost in the opposite direction by I am sympathetic to both sides by the way in their projects or at least some but sympathetic but it's what they're doing so one is a group that says you know we want equal citizenship a
secular nation-state and basically kind of thing that you see with Sheikh Rashid Al-Ghanoushi in Tunisia who has begun to use this document to effectively argue for sort of secular citizenship and you know if you want to go for it if that's your thing a lot of Muslims are doing that go for it but don't say this is you know coming from the Quran and Sunnah and don't say that this is the document that gives you justification for it. So there is no secular citizenship in this document because the I mean the first two sentences of the document are this is an ummah of believers to the exclusion of everyone else and its purpose is to make da'wah right how can you say that this is secular citizenship where people can have any faith they want and you know the purpose of a secular state is simply to exist you define your own goals whereas this is a document that says the ummah has a goal and that goal is of course there in the Quran as well so that's one side of abuse. The other side of abuse is by people and this appears in the Moroccan declaration which was sponsored by the United Arab Emirates and their abuse is very interesting they it's abuse more by silence or an omission rather so for instance they use this document and they say look there is no minority and there are no majority in Islam everybody has you know this is the document that is very tolerant what they don't say is that the very idea of majority and minority becomes important if people have a right to hold people hold their rulers accountable and elect their rulers and they don't completely take that out of
the picture for them they are in fact supporting a completely unaccountable monarchy right and somehow what they are trying to say is that oh our this document gives you rights without their any accountability without any procedure for electing or even raising your voice against the rulers and the rulers that they are trying to that they are presenting these documents to right and who are sponsoring this I mean these are they have the worst human rights record in the world where 80% of their population is foreign workers that are living in conditions that would be considered slavery or worse and these people are talking about you know declaration of human rights and you know and they talk about peace right so this is the idea is that this document is making peace but they are behind almost every major war in the Middle East and they're often on the side of the dictators and colonizers they are more normalizes with Israel right they in fact are pushing away Palestinians and then they talk about peace so that's the other kind of abuse that the document is attractive to these people because it doesn't talk about the limits on the rulers powers I feel like I'm I've just wound you up but we're almost we're almost so Dr. Awamer I have one final question imagine my nine-year-old niece joins us on zoom and says to you Dr. Awamer you've studied all these great things such as nuclear sciences and Islamic history and Mashallah
and she says to you I've I've studied a bit of the Quran and I follow the Prophet and I've read a lot of the Hadiths but then I stumbled across this document which sounds and looks amazing it's a constitution what how do I even benefit from this constitution and what are the limits of my reading of this constitution what do I not find in it so it's a bit of an open-ended question but basically in 30 seconds or less what is the constitution how do I benefit from it and what what are its limitations so I'd say that the Sahifa should be treated as a Hadith out of you know hundred thousand Hadith each one of them is important in different ways and one of the cardinal principles of our deen is that we have if you will a hierarchy of sources the most important thing is the Quran and then the the fundamental sort of Hadith that everybody agrees on and so on and in that sense everything that you learn from the Prophet's life you're going to learn you're going to benefit from it and this Sahifa is an amazing Hadith it has some weakness but it has some corroboration but it's an amazing Hadith because it shows how the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was eager to make peace without compromising his mission. Dr. Awaimer JazakAllah Khair thank you so much for those of us who are not familiar with the constitution or the Sahifa as we now call it and and all the kind of question
marks around it I recommend you read Dr. Awaimer's paper on Yaqeen Institute.org JazakAllah Khair Dr.
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