Did the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula?

- If he did, what is the wisdom behind expelling all Ahl al-Kitab from the Arabian Peninsula?

Dear Brother / Sister,

- The Prophet (pbuh) states the following in a hadith:

“I will definitely expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula, and I will leave no one except the Muslims there.” (Muslim, h.no: 1767)

- According to another sound narration, the last words of the Prophet (pbuh) at the time of his death were as follows:

“Expel the Jews of Hejaz and the people of Najran from the Arabian Peninsula! Know it very well that the worst of people are those who transformed the graves of their prophets into mosques.” (Ibn Hanbal, 3/221; Ibn Abdul-Barr, Tamhid, 1/169)

- It is understood from the hadith narration above that when the Prophet (pbuh) said, “I will definitely expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula”, he did not necessarily mean that he himself would do it, but that his ummah, representing his spiritual personality and his prophetic mission, would do it.

As a matter of fact, there were some partial expulsions during the era of the Prophet (pbuh), but not all Jews and Christians were expelled.

According to some scholars, the Arabian Peninsula is the geography where the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf, the Indian Ocean are located and it includes the region of Damascus and Iraq from the north. There are also some other geographical definitions.

According to Imam Malik and Imam Shafii, the Arabian Peninsula consists of Makkah, Madinah, Yamama and Yemen. (Nawawi, Sharhu Muslim, 11/93)

- However, according to Imam Shafii, what is meant by the Arabian Peninsula mentioned in the hadith is not all of it, but a part of it, namely the Hejaz region, which includes Makkah, Madinah and Yamama. (Nawawi, ibid)

- Ibn Hajar holds a similar view regarding the issue and states the following: The fact that Umar (ra) expelled the Jews to the area where the villages of Tayma and Jericho are located shows that when the Prophet said, “I will definitely expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula”, or “Expel…”, he meant the Hejaz region, which is part of the Arabian Peninsula because “Tayma”, the place to which Umar (ra) expelled the Jews, is in the Arabian Peninsula, but not in Hejaz. (see Ibn Hajar, Fathul-Bari, 10/212-213)

- To sum up, according to some scholars, the places from where Jews, Christians and polytheists are ordered to be expelled are Makkah and Madinah in particular. The fact that Umar (ra) expelled the Jews to TAYMA, which is located in the Arabian Peninsula but outside the Hejaz region, supports that view.

Accordingly, the wisdom behind that order is the fact that the presence of the enemies of religion in those places, which are the centers of Islam, might overshadow the dominance of Islam.

The statement of our Prophet (pbuh) that “two religions cannot coexist” (Ibn Hajar, 5/328) may also indicate that wisdom.

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