Written rules and what people make of them

This lesson asks you to analyse how legislation, the courts and public policy approach equity and social justice issues, and how they affect people's perceptions. The museum offers two texts, a pact written in seventh-century Medina and a United Nations resolution; Canadian statutes, court decisions and policies come from your class. ¹

Look at who is named in the text, what it promises each of them, and who is to settle a dispute. Then ask what a reader who never lived through the events would take the text to say about the issue.

Read the pact as a text about disputes. In the summary of The Sealed Nectar, the Constitution of Medina tells the believers to unite against whoever transgresses or seeks injustice, sin or aggression, even if he is one of their own sons; no believer kills a believer on account of an unbeliever, nor supports an unbeliever against a believer; and God's protection is one, so that the least of them may grant protection on behalf of all ^{2 3}. For the Jews who follow the believers the clauses promise support and assistance, neither wronged nor allied against ², and a treaty that left them complete freedom in religion and property ⁴. The last clause on disputes says that what they dispute is referred to God and to the Prophet ﷺ ³. Notice who is given the last word, and who is promised protection against whom.

The record gives a summary of a summary. It says that the book mentions sixteen clauses ², that the book summarises the text of the treaty without giving all of its wording, and that the museum presents the clauses as a summary of Ibn Hisham's account. The Scholars note adds that the sources preserve parts of the document through Ibn Ishaq and others, that the reports differ in the order and detail of its clauses, and that each clause therefore needs a source. The record of the International Day to Combat Islamophobia is a different kind of evidence: it cites the United Nations' own page for the Day ⁵ and an English Wikipedia revision of 24 May 2026 ⁶, and it reports what the General Assembly adopted and appointed, not what followed in any country.

The pact says that what the parties dispute is referred to God and to the Prophet ³. The 2022 resolution proclaims a Day and calls for a global dialogue on a culture of tolerance and peace ⁵, and the 2024 resolution calls on member states to take legislative and policy measures and asks the Secretary-General to appoint a Special Envoy ⁵. Take a position: does a text that names who settles disputes shape people's view of an issue more than a text that urges dialogue and measures, and what is the strongest objection to your position?

• The Constitution of Medina: the sixteen clauses as the book summarises them, and the clauses on the Jews.
• International Day to Combat Islamophobia: the 2022 resolution, the 2024 resolution and the Special Envoy.
• Hilf al-Fudul: an earlier pledge, among the Quraysh, to stand with every wronged person in Mecca.

Read The Constitution of Medina and International Day to Combat Islamophobia. Make a two-column list: who each text names, and what it asks of them.