The Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ with Christians
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful and seeking help from Him
Copy of the Covenant which Muhammad bin Abdullah, The Messenger of Allah may peace and blessings be upon him, has written
To all Christians.
This is a letter which Muhammad bin Abdullah has sent to all people.
He is the giver of good news, a Warner, a trustee on the trust of Allah regarding His creature, so that people would not have been left with any argument after the Messengers (came) to them. And Allah is Dominant, Wise.
He wrote it to all his people and to all those who believed in Christianity (in the land of the East and West), either near or far, either eloquent or dumb, either known or unknown.
This letter stands as a pledge. Whoever breaks this pledge and goes against it and exceeds what it ordains, is to be considered as a breaker to the pledge of Allah and His covenant and a ridiculer of His Deen.
He will bring curse upon him. It doesn’t matter whether he be a Sultan or anyone else from among the Muslims, the Believers.
If a monk or Pilgrim takes shelter in a mountain, valley or a cave or a populated area, or a plain or sand or Synagogue
I would be behind them to protect them from their enemy. By myself and my helpers and my people and my followers as if they are my subject and those in my protection. I will remove the harm from them.
Regarding such provision on which the people of covenant are asked to pay tax except what they pay with their own pleasure. They are not to be forced and no compulsion is allowed at all.
No bishop is to be removed from his diocese, nor any monk from his monastery, nor the one confined to his cell for it, nor a pilgrim from his pilgrimage.
No house belonging to their churches or Synagogues is to be demolished. No money belonging to the Church is to be used in building a mosque or a house of a Muslim.
Whoever does any of that has broken the pledge of Allah and opposed His Messenger.
No tax nor penalty is to be asked of any Monk or Bishop or the one engaged in worship. And I am there to protect them wherever they are in the land or in the sea, in East, west, north or south.
They are in my protection and my covenant and my security from any type of despised things.
Similarly, anyone who devotes himself to worship in Mountains or in sacred places, is not required to pay tax on product nor tithe on their crops. They do not even halve it.
They are only to bring out, at the time of harvest, a cup only from each Ardab (equal to 2.500 pounds in weight) according to their own calculations
They are not to be asked to come out at the time of a battle, nor to pay Jizya (Tax) nor to be treated among those who give Tax on products, those of wealth, assets and trades more than twelve dirham annually. With no one among them is to be forced into labour.
Nor are they to be argued except in the best way. They are to be treated with mercy.
Wherever they go and wherever they are, they are not subjected to any discipline despised (by them).
No Christian woman is allowed to marry a Muslim man except with her consent. She should be allowed to attend prayers in her place of worship. She must not be prevented from observing her religion.
Whoever opposes the pledge of Allah and does contrary to it, has disobeyed His pledge and His Messenger.
They are to be helped to renovate their places of worship, (Synagogues and Churches).
That is a symbol of helping them to carry out their religion in accordance to the spirit of this pledge.
None of them is to be forced to transport weapons but this is the duty of the Muslims to defend them and never go against this pledge till the last hours and the end of the world.
Witnessed to this pledge which Muhammad bin Abdullah, the Messenger of Allah has written to all the Christians and all the conditions which are to be fulfilled, all those whose name and testimony is recorded here in the end:
Ali bin Abi Talib, Abu Bakr bin Abi Quhafa, Umar bin Al Khattab, Uthman bin Affan, Abul’darda, Abdullah bin Masood, Al- Abbas bin Abdul MuttalibFudail bin Abbas, Al-Zubair bin Al Awwam -Talha Bin Abdullah Sa’eed bin Mu’az, Sa’ad bin Ubada, Thabit bin Qais, Zaid bin Thabit, Abu Hanifa bin Utba, Hashim bin Utba – (Abdul Azim bin Hasan), Abdullah bin Amr bin Al-As.
And Ali bin Abi Talib wrote this pledge with his hand-writing in the Mosque of the Prophet (May peace and blessings be upon him) on third Muharram in the 2nd year of Hijra.
A copy is deposited in the treasury of Sultan and was stamped by Prophet’s stamp. It was written on a leather skin.
Blessings be upon those who act upon them. Let him be among those who expect forgiveness from their Lord, Allah.
According the Monastery of Tur at Egypt
Ref: Ahmed Zaki Pasha
Manuscript NO 814 at the Egypt House of Books
