Hilf al-Fudul
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Hilf al-Fudul (Arabic: حلف الفضول) was an alliance or confederacy created in Mecca in the year 590 AD,[1] to establish justice for all through collective action, specially for where not under the protection of any clan. Because of Muhammad's role in its formation, the alliance plays a significant role in Islamic ethics. Because fudul commonly means "virtuous" the alliance is often translated as League of the Virtuous.[2]
Historical background
In the years preceding the pact, the Quraysh were involved in intermittent conflicts. The war, as usual, was a result of an unsettled murder. The effect was growing discontent with the form of justice that required sacrilegious war. Many Quraysh leaders had travelled to Syria, where they found relative justice prevailed. Similar conditions also existed in Abyssinia. No such system, however, existed in Arabia.[3]
The pact, or 'hilf' in arabic, take place at the return of the Fijar War (the battle take place in Shawwal month and Hilf al-Fudul at Dhu l-Qa'da). Its result was the control of the the commercial road between Yemen and Al-Hirah by the Meccans.
The Trigger
A Yemeni merchant from Zabid had sold some goods to Al-As ibn Wa'il al-Sahmi (father of Amr ibn al-As). Having taken possession of the goods, the Qureyshi refused to pay the agreed price, knewing that the merchant had no confederate or kinsman in Mecca, whom he could count upon for help. The merchant, instead of letting it pass, appealed to the Quraysh to see that justice was done.[3] But due to the preeminent place of Al-As ibn Wa'il, they refused to help him. So the merchant went to the mountain Abi Qays to proclame poems asking for justice.
Formation
Al-Zubayr ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, Muhammad's oncle, is believed to be the first to call for a pact.[4] A few clans met in Dar Al Nadwa, Mecca's assembly, and accepted to ask for the yemeni's right. A meeting was hosted at the house of Abdullah ibn Jada'an.[5] At the meeting, various chiefs and members of tribes pledged to:[6] assist anyone who was treated unjustly, collectively intervene in conflicts to establish justice. Especially for people who were stranger to Mecca or were not under the protection of a clan.
To make the pact imperative and sacred, the members went into the Ka'aba and poured water into the receptacle so it flowed on the black stone. Thereupon each man drank from it. Then they raised their right hands above their heads to show they would stand together in this endeavor.[3] The pact was written and placed inside the Ka'aba, the place where the participants believed it would be under the protection of God.[7]
Among the members who agreed to the terms of the pact was Muhammad. Later on, after proclaiming Islam, Muhammad still acknowledged the validity and value of the pact, despite most of the members being non-Muslim.[6] Abu Bakr is also said to have agreed to this pact.[6] This presumption is based on the fact that Abdullah ibn Jada'an, whose house was the venue for this pledge, was Abu Bakr's fellow clansman.[8]
That pact also marked the beginning of some notion of justice in Mecca, which would be later repeated by Muhammad when he would preach Islam.[9] Another aspect of the pact was that it would open up the Meccan market to Yemenite merchants, who were hitherto excluded.[10]
The Meccans clans
Amongst the clans, Banu Hashim, Banu Zuhra, Banu Muthalib, Asad and Banu Taym participated in its formation. Montgomery Watt not a continuity with the precedent pact of the Muthayyabun. At the exception of the Banu Nawfal and the powerful 'Abd Shams (Banu Umayya), whose success make them now closer to the Ahlaf (mainly Makhzum and Sahm). Pour M. Watt, now that the Makhzum and 'Abd Shams took the control of the trad roade with the Yemen, the lesser clans was going to be excluded of commerce with that country if yemeni merchants stopped to come to Mecca. He also note that the same clans will be in conflict until the Battle of Badr, as all meccans leader in this battle belongs to the opposite clans of hilf al fudhul.[2][11]
Legacy
On the time of calife Mu'awiya, the Medinan governor Al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan ('Abd Shams), beeing nephew of the calife, commit an injustice to Husayn ibn Ali who threatened to take the case to the members of Hilf al-Fudul. Influent meccans like Abd Allah ibn az-Zubayr (Assad), Al-Miswar ibn Makhrama (Al-Zuhri) and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (al-Taymi) swore then to help him in agreement to the pact, and the ommeyade governor steped back, afraid of possible consequences.[12] · [13]
Islamic ethics
Anas Malik sees the pact as example libertarianism in Islam,[14] and Anthony Sullivan considers it as a support for Muslim democrats.[15]
The pact holds significance in Islamic ethics. According to Anthony Sullivan, the pact represents Islam's interest in human rights and protection of such rights.[15] Muhammad, later as a Muslim, accepted the substance of the agreement made by primarily non-Muslims. Tariq Ramadan draws three principles from this:[6]
- Islam embraces values derived from the human conscience, that are outside of the Islamic tradition. This is because Muhammad had acknowledged a pact before revelation, in the pre-Islamic era.
- Islam acknowledges the righteousness of non-Muslims. In this case, the non-Muslims had defended justice and the oppressed.
- Islam, instead of building allegiance to a closed community, requires allegiance to a set of universal principles. The message of Islam is not a closed value system, or at variance or conflict with other value systems.
See also
References
- ^ Guraya, Muhammad Yusuf (1979). "JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA". Islamic Studies. 18 (4): 338. ISSN 0578-8072.
- ^ a b Ibrahim, Mahmood (Aug. 1982). "Social and Economic Conditions in Pre-Islamic Mecca." International Journal of Middle East Studies, 14(3): 355. Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c Lings, Martin (1983). Muhammad: His Life based on the earliest Sources. p. 31-2
- ^ OBAIDULLAH FAHAD (2011). "Tracing Pluralistic Trends in Sīrah Literature: A Study of Some Contemporary Scholars". Islamic Studies. 50 (2): 221. JSTOR 41932590.
- ^ Najeebabadi, Akbar Shah. The History of Islam. Darussalam publishers. p. 101
- ^ a b c d Ramadan, Tariq (2007). In the footsteps of the prophet. p. 20-2
- ^ Chelhod, Joseph (Nov. 1991). "La foi jurée et l'environnement désertique." Arabica, 38(3): 301.
- ^ Khalifa Abu Bakr. "Before and after Conversion to Islam."
- ^ Peterson (2006), p. 43
- ^ Watt, W. M. Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press. p. 9
- ^ M. Watt, Muhammad in Mecca, 1953
- ^ Caetani, Annali del Islam, paragraphes 146 et 147 et notes
- ^ By M Th Houtsma. E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936. p. 307
- ^ Malik, Anas. The Case for Minarchist Libertarian Political Islam Archived 2008-03-11 at the Wayback Machine. Presented at Yale University’s Critical Islamic Reflections conference.
- ^ a b Sullivan, Antony T. Islam, America, and the political economy of liberty