The Mubahalah with the Christians of Najran

A delegation of sixty Christians from Najran, a prominent Christian center in southern Arabia, visited the Prophet in Medina. They were led by their bishop Abu Harithah ibn Alqamah and their political leader al-Aqib Abd al-Masih. The Prophet invited them to Islam, and a theological debate ensued regarding the nature of Isa (Jesus). They refused to accept that Isa was a servant and prophet of Allah rather than divine. Allah then revealed the verse of Mubahalah: 'If anyone disputes with you about this after the knowledge that has come to you, say: Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then let us earnestly pray and invoke the curse of Allah upon the liars' (Al Imran 3:61). The Prophet came out the next morning with al-Hasan, al-Husayn, Fatimah, and Ali. The Christians, seeing the Prophet's confidence and the luminous faces of his family, feared the consequences and declined the mubahalah. Instead, they agreed to a treaty under which they would pay the jizyah and retain their religious freedom. This event established the Islamic principle of inter-faith dialogue and the permissibility of defensive theological engagement.