Toleration Meaning

TOLERATION, RELIGIOUS. Muḥammadan writers are unanimous in asserting that no religious toleration was extended to the idolaters of Arabia in the time of the Prophet. The only choice given them was death or the reception of Islām. [635]But they are not agreed as to how far idolatry should be tolerated amongst peoples not of Arabia. Still, as a matter of fact, Hindūs professing idolatry are tolerated in all Muslim countries. Jews, Christians, and Majūsīs are tolerated upon the payment of a capitation tax [JIZYAH, TREATY]. Persons paying this tax are called Ẕimmīs, and enjoy a certain toleration. (Fatāwā-i-ʿAlamgīrī, vol. i. p. 807.) [ZIMMI.]

According to the Ḥanafīs, the following restrictions are ordained regarding those who do not profess Islām, but enjoy protection on payment of the tax:—

It behoves the Imām to make a distinction between Muslims and Ẕimmīs, in point both of dress and of equipage. It is, therefore, not allowable for Ẕimmīs to ride upon horses, or to use armour, or to use the same saddles and wear the same garments or head-dresses as Muslims, and it is written in the Jāmiʿu ʾṣ-Ṣag͟hīr, that Ẕimmīs must be directed to wear the kistīj openly on the outside of their clothes (the kistīj is a woollen cord or belt which Ẕimmīs wear round their waists on the outside of their garments); and also that they must be directed, if they ride upon any animal, to provide themselves a saddle like the panniers of an ass.

The reason for this distinction in point of clothing and so forth, and the direction to wear the kistīj openly, is that Muslims are to be held in honour (whence it is they are not saluted first, it being the duty of the highest in rank to salute first [SALUTATION]), and if there were no outward signs to distinguish Muslims from Ẕimmīs, these might be treated with the same respect, which is not allowed. It is to be observed that the insignia incumbent upon them to wear is a woollen rope or cord tied round the waist, and not a silken belt.

It is requisite that the wives of Ẕimmīs be kept separate from the wives of Muslims, both in the public roads, and also in the baths; and it is also requisite that a mark be set upon their dwellings, in order that beggars who come to their doors may not pray for them. The learned have also remarked that it is fit that Ẕimmīs be not permitted to ride at all, except in cases of absolute necessity, and if a Ẕimmī be thus, of necessity, allowed to ride, he must alight wherever he sees any Muslims assembled; and, as mentioned before, if there be a necessity for him to use a saddle, it must be made in the manner of the panniers of an ass. Ẕimmīs of the higher orders must also be prohibited from wearing rich garments.

The construction of churches or synagogues in the Muslim territory is unlawful, this being forbidden in the Traditions; but if places of worship originally belonging to Jews or Christians be destroyed, or fall to decay, they are at liberty to repair them, because buildings cannot endure for ever, and as the Imām has left these people to the exercise of their own religion, it is a necessary inference that he has engaged not to prevent them from rebuilding or repairing their churches and synagogues. If, however, they attempt to remove these, and to build them in a place different from their former situation, the Imām must prevent them, since this is an actual construction; and the places which they use as hermitages are held in the same light as their churches, wherefore the construction of those also is unlawful.

It is otherwise with respect to such places of prayer as are within their dwellings, which they are not prohibited from constructing, because these are an appurtenance to the habitation. What is here said is the rule with respect to cities, but not with respect to villages or hamlets, because, as the tokens of Islām (such as public prayer, festivals, and so forth) appear in cities, Ẕimmīs should not be permitted to celebrate the tokens of infidelity there in the face of them; but as the tokens of Islām do not appear in villages or hamlets, there is no occasion to prevent the construction of synagogues or churches there.

Some allege that Ẕimmīs are to be prohibited from constructing churches or synagogues, not only in cities but also in villages and hamlets, because in the villages various tokens of Islām appear, and what is recorded from Abū Ḥanīfah (that the prohibition against building churches and synagogues is confined to cities, and does not extend to villages and hamlets) relates solely to the villages of al-Kūfah, because the greater part of the inhabitants of villages are Ẕimmīs, there being few Muslims among them, wherefore the tokens of Islām did not there appear; moreover, in the territory of Arabia Ẕimmīs are prohibited from constructing churches or synagogues, either in cities or villages, because the Prophet has said: “Two religions cannot be possessed together in the peninsula of Arabia.” (See Fatāwā-i-ʿAlamgīrī, Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār, Hidāyah, in loco.) [ZIMMI.]