“Traditional Muslim thought and attitudes towards non-Muslims, like most other aspects of mainstream Islamic thought, were firmly grounded in the Quranic text, hadiths and juristic opinions formulated under the environment of Muslim dominance over non-Muslims beginning from the hijra through to the first three generations of Muslim history, the salaf. In what is generally known as the Madinan verses,
Let not believers take disbelievers as allies rather than believers. And whoever [of you] does that has nothing with Allah, except when taking precaution against them in prudence. And Allah warns you of Himself, and to Allah is the [final] destination (Surah Al-Imran Ayat 28 (3:28 Quran)
O you who have believed, do not take the disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do you wish to give Allah against yourselves a clear case? Surah An-Nisa Ayat 144 (4:144 Quran)
But once the Sacred Months have passed, kill the polytheists ˹who violated their treaties˺ wherever you find them,1 capture them, besiege them, and lie in wait for them on every way. But if they repent, perform prayers, and pay alms-tax, then set them free. Indeed, Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful (9.5).
The more conciliatory passage in the Meccan texts such as the of cited are regarded in mainstream Muslim thinking as abrogated by the domineering and antagonistic ones.
“Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood.1 So whoever renounces false gods and believes in Allah has certainly grasped the firmest, unfailing hand-hold. And Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing (2;256).
According to Bernard Lewis, right after the death of Muhammad in 632 and Muslim conquest of vast non-Muslim territories that followed, the hadiths and authoritative Muslim legal opinions formulated and is effect, canonized, during this period with regards to Muslim relations with non-Muslims generally incline towards the position of contemptuous toleration of the weak by the strong. The preoccupation of Muslim jurists at the time was to work out appropriate arrangements for the last colonized non-Muslim populations, the dhimmis. The resultant literature clearly reflects the belief that the process of Islamic donation over non-Islam would continue until, in a not -too distant future, the whole world wither accepted the Islamic faith or submitted to Muslim rule (Summarized from Azumah, p 198).
References
Azumah, J. A. (2018). The Legacy of Arab-Islam In Africa. Oneworld, London.
Lewis, B. (1994). “Legal and Historical Reflections on the Position of Muslim Populations under non Muslim Rule, in B. Lesi & D. Snapper (ed)., Muslims In Europe. https://academic.oup.com/book/47551/chapter-abstract/422627412?redirectedFrom=fulltext
