Читать книгу A Dictionary of Islam. Being a cyclopedia of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological terms, of the Muhammadan religion онлайн

222 страница из 560

CONVERTS TO THE MUḤAMMADAN RELIGION. According to the author of the Hidāyah (vol. ii. 170), if a hostile infidel embrace Islām in a hostile country, his person is his own, and he is not made a slave, nor can his children be enslaved. His property is also his own. But it is not so in the case of one who has been first conquered and then embraces Islām, for his own person and his children become slaves, and his wives are at the mercy of the victorious Muslim, whilst his lands also become the property of the State.

COVENANT. The word in the Qurʾān and the Traditions for God’s Covenant with His people is Mīs̤āq. Muḥammad taught, both in the Qurʾān and in the Traditions, that in the beginning God called all the souls of mankind together and took a promise (waʿdah) and a covenant (mīs̤āq) from them.

The account of this transaction is given as follows in the Qurʾān, Sūrah vii. 171:—

“Thy Lord brought forth their descendants from the reins of the sons of Adam and took them to witness against themselves, ‘Am I not,’ said He, ‘your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yes, we witness it.’ This we did, lest ye should say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘Truly, of this were we heedless, because uninformed.’