Rabi Al Awwal is the third month of the Hijri calendar, which began the year Prophet Muhammad migrated from Mecca to Medina and founded the first Muslim state. The Prophet was born in the same month on 12th of Rabi Al Awwal. Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi, marking his birth anniversary, is the celebration of the Prophet as ‘Rahmah tan Lil Aalamin’, a blessing for all creation. In the Quran’s Surah (chapter) Al-Anbiya, Allah says: ‘And We have not sent you [the Prophet] except as a mercy to the creations.’
‘Rahmah’ is a recurring Quranic concept meaning kindness, compassion, grace, forgiveness, and blessing. It was an integral part of the Medina Charter, which many consider the constitution of the first Muslim state of Medina. The Prophet governed Medina per the principles of socio-political justice enshrined in the charter, which outlined the political rights and duties of its inhabitants and sought to end conflicts among tribes and maintain peace among all its inhabitants, Muslims, Jews, Christians, and polytheists.
The Medina Charter promised that Jews would not be wronged and would be treated as one community with others. Known in Arabic as Sahifah or Dustur Medina, it was perhaps the first such written document that incorporated religious and political rights to promote mutual respect and acceptance. It underscored Muslim commitment to human lives and religious minorities in line with the Quran’s mandate for Muslims to respect all previous messengers, such as Jesus and Moses, and to honour their followers, Jews and Christians.
Medina Charter to Pancasila: How Indonesia Reimagined Islamic Pluralism
In the middle of the 20th century, Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation and home to 13% of Muslims globally, adopted the spirit of the Medina Charter in the framework of a multi-religious state on the lines of the Prophet’s Medina. Indonesian Muslim leadership backed Pancasila, or the Five Principles of Indonesia’s state ideology, as reflecting the essence of shari‘a (Islamic religious and moral legal system) and likening it to the Medina Charter.
The late former president Haji Abdurrahman Wahid (1940–2009), a Muslim cleric who helmed Indonesia between 1999- 2001, when the terror group al-Qaeda reared its ugly head, doubled down on Pancasila as reflecting the essence of shari‘a. He called for reemphasizing Islam as a true blessing for all creation and for opposing hardline movements to restore Islam’s honour and respect. Wahid co-authored The Illusion of an Islamic State (Ilusi Negara Islam) to raise awareness of the dangers of extremism.
Gus Dur, who played a leading role in transforming Indonesia into the world’s third-largest democracy after Suharto’s 32-year dictatorial regime, wrote that victory in the struggle against extremists will restore the majesty of Islam as rahmatan lil-âlamîn (blessing for all creation). The nine stars and a rope with 99 segments encircling the globe in the logo of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the world’s largest Islamic organization, which Gus Dur led for 15 years (1984-1999), reflect this concept. The nine stars in the NU logo symbolise the Wali Songo, or Nine Saints credited with propagating Islam in the heartland of the Indo-Malayan Archipelago (modern-day Indonesia), and serve as a chain of transmission to the Prophet.
How the Medina Charter Inspires Modern Pluralism
NU has taken on obsolete ideas misused for violence in Islam’s name and sought to protect Indonesia’s pluralism and understanding of Islam against the threats of extremism. It has recontextualized Islamic teachings to reflect the true essence of the Prophet as rahmatan lil-âlamîn (blessing for all creation). NU has propagated Humanitarian Islam as a global movement to restore the Islamic idea of rahmah (universal love and compassion) as Islam’s primary message.
The neighbouring Malaysia has sought to incorporate the spirit of the Medina Charter to unite a multi-religious and multi-ethnic country. In June 2026, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called the Medina Charter a guiding paradigm in the Muslim experience. Anwar said the charter laid the foundation for a state that recognised religious and racial diversity. Speaking at the 3rd International Summit of Religious Leaders 2026, Anwar said Prophet Muhammad did not marginalise any group and established a social contract that preserved the dignity of every individual.
The Medina Charter introduced a doctrine of limited powers. It has been likened to a Bill of Rights for all, irrespective of their origins, race, tribes, or religion, and described as a remarkable contribution to modern constitutionalism. It introduced the rule of law by upholding the rights and duties of all people and treating them equitably. The charter empowered the organs of government while preserving the rights of people. In the book The First Written Constitution, Muhammad Hamidullah called the charter a revolutionary change, which provided the people with a central public institution for seeking justice. He argued that this epoch-making innovation ended the chaos of tribalism.
From Sudan to Turkey: How Muslim Thinkers Reimagined the Medina Charter
In the 1980s and 1990s, Muslim intellectuals and jurists argued for the Medina Charter as a suitable point of reference amid discussions in Sudan on a new constitution for a multi-religious and ethnic society. Sudanese politician, scholar, and de facto leader Hassan al-Turabi (1932–2016) argued that the political order the Prophet created in Medina was a confederation. Turabi emphasised that the Jewish tribes who joined it had their own states. Turabi noted that Jews and Muslims formulated the Medina Charter and enjoyed unlimited freedom in their beliefs and cultures.
Turkish scholar Ali Bulaç argues the Medina Charter was written with the approval of the Jewish tribes, who had a defined religion and a concrete sharia, and the polytheists. It was entrusted to Ali ibn Abi Talib, one of the Prophet’s four successors, for safekeeping. Ali preserved the document by keeping it in his sword’s scabbard.
Ali Bulaç, who worked on the Medina Charter for 30 years before publishing Medine Sözleşmesi (2020), believes the Medina Charter can introduce new dimensions to debates on Islam and democracy, and serve as a guide for solutions. He argues that if modern Western democracies take their inspiration from the 1215 Magna Carta signed in England between the king and the lords, the Medina Charter, too, possesses a socio-political potential that may inspire a new democratic model.
From Bangladesh to Marrakesh: Reviving the Medina Charter
In 2014, the then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised to run Bangladesh, where the Constitution’s preamble and Article 12 list secularism as a fundamental state principle, as per the Medina Charter and the Prophet’s last sermon in 632 CE, which emphasised equality, justice, women’s rights, racial harmony, ethics, and the sanctity of life. Hasina maintained the Medina Charter had inspired Bangladeshi secularism.
Muslim scholars have sought to promote the Medina Charter’s spirit to end the violence, which began in the name of fighting communism in the 1980s before boomeranging in the form of al-Qaeda and sparking Islamophobia globally. The siege of Mecca, the overrunning of the American embassy after the Iranian revolution, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 triggered a chain reaction that, among other things, birthed transnational terror groups.
Moroccan King Mohammed VI, who hosted a January 2016 gathering of Muslim scholars from 120 countries to reaffirm the values enshrined in the charter, underlined that the charter promoted unity, pluralism, and religious freedom. He sought the revival of its spirit for a more peaceful and inclusive world.
Reclaiming the Medina Charter Against Extremism
The Morocco gathering came against the backdrop of the rise of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which masqueraded as a caliphate and was decimated in March 2019. The Marrakesh Declaration issued at the end of the gathering called on Muslim-majority countries to protect religious minorities, citing its commitment in the Medina Charter. The declaration called for ‘full protection for the rights and liberties of all religious groups‘ and concrete actions to achieve this. It illustrated how religion can be drawn on to support human rights, challenging those who claim Islam is incompatible with modern international law. It sought to counter the idea that Muslims and non-Muslims cannot coexist.
The author is a journalist and a writer interested in the dialogue of civilisations
Mauritanian religious scholar Abdallah bin Mahfudh ibn Bayyah crafted the legal framework that inspired the Marrakesh Declaration. He drew from early Islamic sources and the Medina Charter. Bayyah, who teaches Islamic studies at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul Aziz University, connected the sources with international human rights law for equal, contractual citizenship as an Islamic principle.
Bayyah, who specializes in four Muslim schools of thought, has been engaging with governments and seeking to introduce the framework widely. He has partnered with activists and organisations with expertise in mobilising grassroots action. Bayyah, who works through the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, has described extremists as ‘uneducated’ and ‘ignorant fools’ distorting Islam. He has called on Islamic scholars to ‘descend from their ivory towers’ to ‘expound sound understandings and a correct approach.’ Bayyah has argued that the Medina Charter established the idea of ‘common citizenship’ regardless of religious belief.
The declaration was a call for action and expressed concern over the use of violence as a tool for settling conflicts and imposing one’s point of view. It noted that this situation has also weakened legitimate governments. The declaration said the violence has enabled criminal groups to issue edicts attributed to Islam, but which, ‘in fact, alarmingly distort its fundamental principles and goals in ways that have seriously harmed the population as a whole.’ The declaration drew global attention, with then-US President Barack Obama among those hailing it. Obama noted that leaders from Muslim-majority countries globally held a summit in Morocco on protecting religious minorities, including Jews and Christians.
