Non Muslims Permanently Living In The Jazirat Al-Arab/Arabian Peninsula

[Umer]

Yemen, Iraq and Jordan are not included in Arabian Peninsula. Please read the article below by Hassan ilyas Sahab:

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[Rohan Hasan]

Salam, that comment is in Urdu and I can’t read Urdu

[Umer]

Following is AI generated translation of the article. It might not be completely accurate, but I think it conveys the correct meaning overall.

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Allah chose two regions through Prophet Ibrahim as centers for His oneness. One is the Arabian peninsula, where Ibrahim settled his son Isma’il, and the other is Canaan, where first Ishaq and then Ya’qub were appointed — the latter also called Israel.

When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was sent in the seventh century CE to the land of Arabia, he was commanded that the land reserved for God’s monotheism must become wholly for God’s religion: “And fight them until there is no fitnah and the religion is all for Allah” (al-Anfal 8:39).

He fully acted on that command and instructed his companions likewise. He said: “Drive out the Jews of Hijaz and the people of Najran from the Arabian peninsula” (Ahmad, no. 1693).

On another occasion he said: “I will definitely expel the Jews and the Christians from the Arabian peninsula until I leave none there except Muslims” (Muslim, no. 3319).

Even at his parting, the Prophet explicitly warned later generations that two religions cannot coexist in the Arabian peninsula. Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) reported: “The last pledge the Messenger of Allah made was: ‘No two religions will be left together in the Arabian peninsula’ ” (Musnad Ahmad, no. 25758).

Given these clear statements in the Qur’an and the hadiths, it is plain that this ruling applies to the entire Arabian peninsula, which today comprises the following countries:

• Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• Sultanate of Oman
• United Arab Emirate
• State of Kuwait
• State of Qatar
• Kingdom of Bahrain.

Yemen is not included, because although geographically part of the Arabian peninsula, it has historically maintained a distinct political identity. For this reason, when the Prophet sent letters to neighboring rulers, the chiefs of Yemen were included; they accepted faith with their whole people in 7 AH.

Most scholars of the Muslim community have adopted this view, though some scholars have a different position: they hold that the ruling applies not to the whole peninsula but specifically to the Hijaz.

One such scholar is Shah Waliullah Muhaddith Dehlavi. In his book Hujjatullah al-Baligha, in the chapter on jihad and the distribution of spoils, he briefly discusses the division of lands in the world and presents this perspective. Shah Sahib writes that lands are of two kinds: those singled out for Islam, like the Hijaz or lands where Muslims have become dominant; and lands where the majority are disbelievers but Muslims later gained control by force or treaty【note: original text cited Shah Sahib】.

From his words it appears that the territory he classifies as reserved for Muslims is “the Hijaz.” We know Hijaz is only a part of the Arabian peninsula, historically the area between Najd and Tihama. If Shah Sahib meant only Hijaz by this ruling, that departs from the commonly held view in the ummah and he should have explained it. It is possible, however, that when he said “Hijaz” he meant the peninsula by synecdoche; several other passages of his support the idea that by “Hijaz” he sometimes refers more broadly to Arabian lands. For example, in the same Hujjatullah al-Baligha he lists regions from which scholars collected hadith manuscripts — Hijaz, ash-Sham, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, and Khurasan — treating Hijaz as one among many regions and mentioning Yemen separately.

Elsewhere he uses the terms “people of Hijaz” and “people of Iraq,” which suggests he did not intend Hijaz in the narrow sense only. Since Shah Sahib did not make his position explicit, both possibilities remain: he might have meant Hijaz narrowly or intended the whole peninsula when he spoke of Hijaz.

Another scholar who limited the ruling to the land of Hijaz was Imam al-Shafi‘i. This view appears in Mirqat al-Mafatih (a commentary on Mishkat al-Masabih) where the subject is the inviolability of non-Muslims and their residence in the Arabian peninsula. It is reported that Nawawi said Malik, al-Shafi‘i and others considered it obligatory to expel disbelievers from the Arabian peninsula and not permit them residence; but al-Shafi‘i confined this ruling to the Hijaz — which he defined as Mecca, Medina, Yamama and their districts, excluding Yemen and other areas【note: original text cited al-Shafi‘i】.

Ibn Abdul-Barr recorded al-Shafi‘i’s view in al-Istidhkar, stating that the Arabian peninsula from which Umar expelled Jews and Christians comprises Mecca, Medina, Yamama and their dependencies, and that Yemen is not part of that peninsula (as he understands the term)【note: original text cited al-Shafi‘i】. Al-Shafi‘i’s wording does not explicitly mention the word “Hijaz,” but the areas he designates are clearly part of the Hijaz.

Al-Shafi‘i’s position seems grounded in some ahadith transmitted in forms that restrict the command to the Hijaz. These are narrations attributed to Abu Ubayda; representative reports include: “Expel the Jews of the Hijaz from the Hijaz” (Musnad Humaydi, no. 83); “Expel the Jews from the Hijaz and the people of Najran from the Arabian peninsula” (Sunan al-Darimi, no. 2418); and “Expel the Jews from the land of the Hijaz and the people of Najran (Christians) from the Arabian peninsula” (Musannaf Ibn Abi Shayba, no. 32295).

When all reports ascribed to Abu Ubayda are studied, it becomes clear that some narrators inadvertently altered wording in transmission; in most routes the original wording is consistent with the broader formulation. For example, Ahmad (no. 1632) records: “Expel the Jews of the people of Hijaz and the people of Najran (Christians) from the Arabian peninsula” — a formulation that supports the broader scope.

The author of A‘la’ as-Sunan provided a strong scholarly critique of those hadiths that limit the ruling to Hijaz and offered three main points: first, when people say “Hijaz” it could be a synecdoche for the whole peninsula because Hijaz had larger population centers, but it is not plausible that saying “the Arabian peninsula” would mean only Hijaz. He illustrated: if one says an order came from Washington it may imply the United States, but if one says an order came from the United States one cannot mean only Washington. Second, if the command applied only to Hijaz, why is Najran commanded to be expelled separately when Najran was already outside Hijaz? The narrations explicitly order Najran’s people to be expelled from the Arabian peninsula. Third, reviewing all narrations shows that the majority report the phrase “Arabian peninsula”; hence the Hijaz-restricted reports should be understood in light of the general corpus. He added that when Jews of Khyber or Christians of Najran were expelled, they did not find refuge within the peninsula but went to ash-Sham and Iraq, which shows the intention to clear the peninsula rather than merely one subregion.

From this discussion it becomes clear that the area Allah singled out as the center of His oneness is the entire Arabian peninsula, not merely the Hijaz. There may be scholarly dispute over precisely which territories the peninsula’s boundaries include (see al-Istidhkar for those differences), but restricting the ruling to a single part of the peninsula, such as Hijaz, is not correct. The Prophet’s statement explicitly affirms this: “No two religions will coexist in the Arabian peninsula” (Muwatta, no. 1584).