How did our Prophet (saas) behave toward the People of the Book?

The Prophet Muhammad (saas) was always just and compassionate toward Jews and Christians and tried to form an atmosphere based on reconciliation and love among these three religious communities. Various agreements and guarantees allowed Christians and Jews to live as autonomous religious communities. When the young Muslim community was still suffering from the Makkan polytheists' cruelty and oppression, our Prophet (saas) advised some of them to seek refuge with the Christian king of Ethiopia, Negus (or al-Najashi). The Muslims who later on migrated to Madinah with our Prophet (saas), on the other hand, developed a model of coexistence with that city's Jewish community that was to become a model for all later generations. The Muslims' acceptance of Jews and Christians during the period of Islam's expansion in Arabia entered the history books as an example of justice and acceptance.

One such example was our beloved Prophet's (saas) reading of the verse: "Only argue with the People of the Book in the kindest way - except in the case of those of them who do wrong - saying: 'We believe in what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to you. Our Deity and your Deity are one, and we submit to Him'" (Surat al-‘Ankabut, 46) after he had the following words written in the text of an agreement prepared for the Christian Ibn Harris bin Ka`b and his co-religionists: "The religion, churches, lives, chastity, and goods of all Christians living in the East are under the protection of Allah and all believers. None of those living by Christianity will be forced to turn to Islam. If any Christian is subjected to any killing or injustice, Muslims must help him."

According to some accounts, our Prophet (saas) attended their weddings, visited their sick, and was generous to them. The Prophet Muhammad (saas) even spread out his cloak so that the Christians of Najran who came to visit him could sit on it. Our Prophet's (saas) marriage to Hazrat Maryam, an Egyptian Christian, is one example of this understanding. Following his death, the Muslims' moral conduct toward the People of the Book continued to be based on the acceptance that the Prophet (saas) had shown to them throughout his life.