Building community harmony in religious pluralism: Abdullah Saeed's contextual interpretation of Jizyah

Abstract

Pluralism refers to the existence of various communities or groups in society that are diverse in terms of ethnicity, culture, religion, and others. In the early days of Islam, the practice of jizyah was implemented as a form of recognition of religious plurality in society. If the non-Muslims refused the jizyah, then the remaining option was to be fought until they embraced Islam. This paper aims to examine and explore the values of religious harmony shown through Abdullah Saeed's contextual interpretation of jizyah. This research is a library research using Abdullah Saeed's contextual interpretation approach. The focus of the theme in this study is the value of religious harmony that is hinted at in the interpretation of the verse of jizyah which is then associated with the context of religious pluralism. The findings of this study show that there are three principles in building religious harmony in the midst of religious pluralism, namely the law views equally every individual regardless of the religion he adheres to, no discriminatory treatment is allowed between religious adherents, regardless of the status of the religion as a majority or minority group, and has an attitude of mutual protection and care between all religious adherents.