Convention Of Almadina And Principles Of Coexistence

Abstract

This research studies a historical document that was preserved for us by the books of the Prophet’s Biography, edited in the 7th Century AD, and it is called the Constitution of Medina. The Constitution of Medina provides us with a historical sample that addresses the issue of citizenship, and provides solutions to the diversity of nationalities, religions, sects, and races that bound in Muslim countries today. The document establishes the principle of investing in common denominators and employ them for the good and security of the nation.

 The research aims to identify this historical document, and then study its contents of the principles of coexistence. In order to achieve this goal, the research used the descriptive, analytical and deductive methods, and began by mentioning a historical overview of the evidence of the Constitution of Medina, its sources, its names and indication of its subject and status, in the first topic. Then, in the second topic, it specified the principles of coexistence derived from the Constitution‘s texts in the fields of: building the nation and the foundations of its relationship with its citizens, guaranteeing and protecting freedoms, maintaining security and penal systems, organizing foreign and military affairs, controlling social and economic relations. In the conclusion, the research reached a number of results, the most important of which are :

• The Constitution of Medina is an established historical document of a covenant, a human rights charter, and a legal system that regulates relations between all components of civil society on the basis of social justice, solidarity, and cooperation.
• The document is an example to follow, and a sample from which the pursuit of building cohesive nations is inspired despite their cultural, doctrinal, and ethnic diversity, by focusing on common denominators, and spreading the spirit of acquaintance, compassion, and tolerance, in order to achieve cohesion despite the multiplicity of approaches, on the basis of the unity of belonging to the nation.
• This document has organized in many of its articles the relationship of the Islamic state with its neighbours, on the basis of justice and reciprocity, which constitutes the core of Islamic International Law. Thus, the general feature of the Islamic state in foreign relations confirms its global and humanitarian tendency. The principle in its foreign relations is the rule of peace and cooperation (not aggressors or oppressors)