Religiosity, Political Inclusion, and the Legacy of the Sahifah al-Madina (۶۲۲ C.E.)

This paper focuses on the notion of religiosity  of the ummah of believers, within a capital  legal document of the history of Islam, which is  the Sahifah al-Madina of ۶۲۲ C.E. (the Charter  of Medina). More specifically, it aims at reading the  Charter under the light of today’s call, in order to  draw a notion of “political inclusion” (of religious  minorities) in harmony not only with the early Islamic  tradition but also with these recent attempts of  interreligious dialogue. For this reason, the paper,  firstly, tries to highlight the religious and political  meanings of the Charter for Muḥammad and his  contemporaries; besides it aims demonstrating that  under Islamic law agreements between different  religious groups are morally and religiously valuable,  and, thus to strive for concluding them is beneficial for  the entire community; lastly, the paper tries to extract  from the Charter some legal principles regulating  relationships between the ummah and minority  groups, so to draw a new interpretation suitable for  the contemporary and globalized Muslim society.

Keywords:

Ummah , Charter of Madina , Political Inclusion , Contemporary Reading , History of Islamic Law , Religiosity