From Introduction to Islam, by Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah

440: Conversion "The Islamic law expressly recognizes for non-Muslims the liberty to preserve their beliefs; and if it forbids categorically all recourse to compulsion for converting others to Islam, it maintains a rigorous discipline among its own adherents. The basis of the Islamic "nationality" is religious and not ethnic, linguistic or regional. Hence apostasy has naturally been considered political treason. It is true that this crime is punished by penalties, but the necessity scarcely arose as history has proved. Not only at the time when the Muslims reigned supreme from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans, but even in our own age of political as well as material and intellectual weakness among Muslims, apostasy of Muslims is surprisingly non-existent. This is true not only of regions where there is the semblance of a Muslim State, but even elsewhere, under the colonial powers who have made all humanly possible efforts to convert Muslims to other religions. Islam is gaining ground today, even among Western peoples, from Finland and Norway to Italy, from Canada to Argentina. And all this in spite of the absence of any organised missionary activity.

118: For reasons best known to Him, God has endowed different individuals with different talents. Two children of the same couple, two pupils of the same class do not always have the same qualities or capacities. All lands are not equally fertile, climates differ; two trees of the same species do not produce the same quantity or quality. Every being, every part of a being has its own peculiarities. On the basis of this natural phenomenon, Islam affirms, on the one hand, the original equality of all, and on the other, the superiority of individuals one over the other: All are creatures of the same Lord, and it is not material superiority which counts for obtaining the greater appreciation of God. Piety alone is the criterion of the greatness of the individual. After all, life in this world is but ephemeral, and there must be a difference between the behaviour of a man and a beast.

119: Nationality " It is in this sense, that Islam rejects the narrow basis of birth and common blood as the element of solidarity. The attachment to parentage or to the soil on which one is born, is no doubt natural; yet the very interest of the human race demands a certain tolerance towards other similar groups. The distribution of the natural wealth in different parts of the world in varying quantities renders the world interdependent. Inevitably one is forced to "live and let live"; otherwise an interminable succession of vendettas will destroy all. Nationality on the basis of language, race, colour or birthplace is too primitive; therein is a fatality, an impasse - something in which man has no choice. The Islamic notion is progressive, and is based solely on the choice of the individual. For it proposes the unity of all those who believe in the same ideology, without distinction of race, tongue, or place of abode. Since extermination or subjugation of others is excluded, the only valid possibility is assimilation. And which means can serve better such assimilation, if not belief in the same ideology? It may be repeated that Islamic ideology is a synthesis of the requirements both of the body and the soul; moreover it inculcates a tolerance. Islam has proclaimed that God has always sent His messengers, at different epochs among different peoples. Islam itself claims nothing more than the function of renewing and reviving the eternal message of God, so often repeated at the hands of prophets. It prohibits all compulsion in the matter of religious beliefs; and however unbelievable it may sound, Islam is under the self-imposed religious dogmatic duty of giving autonomy to non-Muslims residing on the soil of the Islamic State. The Qur'an, the Hadith and the practice of all time demand that non-Muslims should have their own laws, administrated in their own tribunals by their own judges, without any interference on the part of the Muslim authorities, whether it be in religious matters or social.

259: Nationality "One finds in human society, turn by turn, two contradictory tendencies: centripetal and centrifugal. On the one hand, separate individuals group themselves in wedlock, families, tribes, city-states, states and empires, sometime willingly and at other times under compulsion. On the other hand, descending from the same couple and ancestors, groups detach themselves from bigger units in order to lead separate and independent lives, away from their relatives; and this separation is occasioned sometimes amicably, for the purpose of finding the means of livelihood elsewhere and lightening the charge on locality too restricted to furnish food for all; while at other times it is dictated by passions, quarrels and other motives.

261: "At the dawn of Islam, in the 7th century of the Christian era, differences and prejudices arising from race, language, place of birth and other things had become the rule rather than the exception; they developed deep-rooted notions, which grew to be almost natural instincts. It was so everywhere in the world, in Arabia, in Europe, in Africa, in Asia, in America and elsewhere. Islam cam to class these notions among the evil traits of humanity, and tried to bring about a cure.
 

262: "The unifying ties of family, of clan, and even of tribe proved too weak to serve the needs of defence and security in a world where egoism and cupidity had rendered inevitable wars of everybody against everybody else. But groups bigger than tribes were created sometimes by the use of force by warriors and emperors. Failing however to create an identity of interests among the totality of the subjects, these artificial unions were constantly menaced by disintegration

263: "Without entering into the history of the several thousand years of the development of this aspect of human society, it would suffice to consider the idea of nationality prevalent in our own time in order to illustrate the point. If nationality is based on the identity of language, race, or place of birth, it goes without saying that it will make the problem of aliens or strangers exist perpetually, and such a nationality will be too narrow, ever to be able to embrace the inhabitants of the entire world; and if the aliens are not assimilated, there will always be the rise of conflicts and wars. In fact, the tie of nationality is not a very sure bond at all. For two brothers may be enemies, and two strangers, having a common ideology, may be friends.
 

264: "The Qur'an (30:22, 49:13) has rejected all superiority on account of language, colour of skin or other ineluctable incidences of nature, and recognizes the only superiority of individuals as that based on piety. A common ideology is the basis of "nationality" among the Muslims, and Islam is this ideology. We shall not speak of religions which do not admit conversion. Among the religions of universal applications, Islam distinguishes itself by the feature that it does not exact the refunction of the world, but insists on the body and soul growing and operating simultaneously. The past has shown that Muslims have assimilated this supra-racial and supra-regional idea of brotherhood; and this sentiment is a living force among them to this day.
 

265: "Naturalization is a feature now admitted among all "nations" but to be naturalized in a new language, in a new colour of skin, and in a new land is not as easy to adhere to as new ideology. For others, nationality is essentially an ineluctable accident of nature; in Islam it is a thing depending solely upon the will and choice of the individual.

432: "There is a tendency among a large number of people to imitate and ape their governors and chiefs, in the outer conduct of life, such as dress, coiffure, etiquette, etc. The result is a superficial assimilation, which brings no advantage to the ruling community, but which causes a moral damage to the classes which imitate in a servile manner. In an Islamic State, non-Muslims constitute a protected community (dhimmi). Therefore if it is the duty of the government to protect the legitimate interest of these "strangers." Hence it is that we see, during the 'Abbasid caliphate that, far from seeking the assimilation of "strangers" by force, the government discouraged all imitation of one by the other: Muslims, Christians, Jews, Magians and others conserved their own modes of dress, their social manners and their distinctive individualities. Only a total assimilation, through religious conversion, was sought, and not a confusion of communities. This is proof enough that the measure had nothing to do with the religious exigencies of Islam - and in the time of the Prophet, there was absolutely no trace of it - but a condition of life, suiting the social conceptions of the epoch: and its essential purpose was to recognize, at the very first sight, the religious community of each and every individual. The intention was to protect in this way the culture of everyone, so that its intrinsic values and defects should come more into relief. In passing, it may be repeated that the conception of nationality in Islam is based neither on an ethnic source nor on place of birth, but on the identity of ideology, i.e., of religion.

387: Obligations of women "In religious matters, her first duty, even as that of man, is to believe in the oneness of God, which is the only means of salvation in the Hereafter. One knows that Islam has formally prohibited the use of compulsion to convert anybody to Islam - and it may be recalled by the way that a non-Muslim wife of a Muslim man has the full right to conserve her religion and to practise it in her individual capacity in wedlock - and one also knows that inside the Muslim community, a rigorous discipline is maintained for its conservation as a whole and the preservation of its system of life. Treason in this respect is punished: yet certain cases of the time of Orthodox Caliphs show that the punishment of women on account of apostasy is less severe than that of men.

533: "In the case of the conversion of a married man to Islam if his wife is Jewish or Christian and does not want to be converted with he husband, the marriage continues undisturbed. If the wife is of the prohibited categories, and persists in her irreligion, conjugal life must cease immediately; she should be given a reasonable time to think over, and in the final resort, divorce will have to take place.