The glorious Quran set the basic rules for the rights of christians and the prophet practically applied it to avoid the inflexible Ijtihad (juristic independent judgment).

The rightly guided caliphs were the closest to the prophet (PBUH), so they were the most holding fast to the rights of christians. The companions of the prophet are those who faced the new developments in the dailylife concverning the issues of christians and inferred their Ijtihad which finally would have in the interest of Dhimmy (protected non-Muslim living under Islamic rule).

The era of the rightly-guided caliphs is characterized by the fact that it is the best ever period followed the era of theprophet Muhammad. This is because the rule was to the senior companions who were too close to the prophet and were people of excellence and the glad tidings of being admitted to the paradise. Moreover, such companions were aided by just companions in the affairs of rule who were pioneer in the fields of thinking, pilitics, management, economics and the militarity.

The era of the rightly-guided caliphs has experiences some of the recent issues not found in the prophet's life. Among those was the widely spread openings which started at the last time of the caliph Abu-Bakr As-Sidiq (RA). Those openings were proceeded by the second caliph `Umar ibn Al-Khattab and then the other succeeding caliphs. This reveals a fact that Muslims dominated many countries, like Great Syria, Iraq, Egypt and others and as a result Muslims became in close contact with the inhabitants of these opened countries, namely christians in particular[1].

On going to the opening of Great Syria, the caliph Abu-bakr declared his advixce to the Muslim army: (O Muslims! Here are ten commandments that you must apply. Do not betray, exaggerate, act treacherously, or mutilate. Do not kill children, elderly or women. Do not leave behind the palm trees sterile or burn it. Do not cut productive trees or slaughter ewe, cow or camel unless for the purpose of eating. Be informed that you will pass by people dedicated for worship at cells, you should leave them for worship[2].)

This is manefested in the statement of ibn `Asakir on the biography of ibn Fatik who witnessed the opening of Damascus. Ibn Fatik told that he himself was assigned to distributing the places after the opening and he used to house Romans upstairs and Muslims downstairs not to harm Dhimmy[3].

Once it happened that `Umar ibn Al-Khattab passed by a beggar blind aged man. by then, `Umar asked him: ????. the man replied: I am a jew. `umar asked: what forced you to that?! The jew said: I seek money while I am aged poor man. at that moment, `Umar took the jew to his house and gave him from his own property and then sent to the treasurer and said to him: look after this man and his peers as if not, we would be unjust that is we would have made advantages of their youth and neglect them on old age. Allah, Almighty, says: (Zakah expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy), At-Tawbah, 60. the poor are the Muslims and such jew man is from the needy of the people of the Book. `Umar dropped Jizyah (poll tax required from non-Muslims living in an Islamic state) from him and his peers[4].

Gustave Le Bon described `Umar ibn Al-Khattab on entering Jerusalem and how he treated christians tolerantly: ( the attitude of the emir of believers `Umar on entering to Jerusalem reveals the great kindness of the Arab openers toward the conquered nations. On the other hand, crusaders after many centuries on entering Jerusalem acted on the contrary. `Umar entered Jerusalem in a small number of his Muslim companions. He asked patriarch Sefrunios to accompany him on the way to visit all the sacred places. `Umar pledged to protect Zimmyun, their churches and wealth and prohibited Muslims to perform worship in their churches and synagogue.

Gustave proceeds: `Amr ibn Al-`Ass was not less linent than `Umar. `Amr made Zymmyun ejoying full freedom in their worship and wealth. He dealt justly with them that he fixed the Jizyah annual amout to amount not more than 15 Frank. Egyptians accepted this with pleasure as they were paying many times more than that to Caesar[5].

In fact, Egypt experienced a very hard times at the hands of the Byzantine colonists who held Egypt as milky-cow whose resources must vest in the Byzantine emperor treasury. Accordingly, Egyptians experienced hardships at the various areas of life.

For example, Egyptians suffered from the dissension between the Egyptian and Byzantine churches that Cyrus made every effort to divert Egyptians from their creed to the extent that many of those who failed to flee away accepted unwillingly the Byzantine doctrine including some of the bishops whereas some of them remained firm, like the reverend father Mina, while patriarch Binjamine fled away from the persecution of Cyrus.

Binjamine continued fugitive untill the Islamic openning by `Amr ibn Al-`Ass who heard about his story and gave him a pledge by protection and security in his creed. Accordingly, Binjamine came back and lived safely along with the Copts under the rule of Muslims[6].

The pledge concluded by `Amr ibn Al-`Ass was the best evidence for the Muslim concern to provide all the means to respectable life to the Copts. They enjoyed freedom in their creed, worship acts and aspects of life. This was the provisions of the pledge of `Amr ibn Al-`Ass which reads: (the following is what `Amr ibn Al-`Ass committed himself to Egyptians that they enjoy security on their souls, wealth, creed, churches, and the land and sea directions that they would not be harmed in one of these and the Nubians are not allowed to live with them[7].

The facts prove that when Muslims opened Egypt, they kept the administrial system there unchanged. Moreover, they permitted the christians to take part in the administration of the affairs of Egypt unlike before the Is;amic oppening where they were prevented from that[8].

It is related that `Ali ibn Abi-Talib found his missing armor in the pocession of a christian man. at that moment, he brought him before Shuraih, the judge at that time, to sue him. `Ali "may Allah be pleased with him" said: this armour is mine. I neither sold it to him nor did I donate it. The jusge addressed the christian man: what is your response to the words of the emir of the believers `Ali ibn Abi-Talib? The christian said: the armour is mine and I do not call the emir of the believers a liar. Shuraih addressed `Ali saying: O Emir of the believers! Have you a proof? `Ali "may Allah be pleased with him" smiled and said: you are right, Shuraih, I have no proof. Shuraih passed his judgment that the armour is to the christian. Therefore, the christian took the armour and stepped forward away. Tehn he came back and said: I bear witness that such attitude of the judge is that of the prophets of Allah. He proceeded: "the Emir of the believers brings me to the judge who in turn passes a judgment against him! I testify that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. By Allah! The armor belongs to you, O Emir of the believers. I took it when you went out to Siffin and it was dropped from your ash-colored camel. `Ali said: No it is yours as you embraced Islam[9]"

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