Millions of non-Muslims live as permanent residents in Muslim states. Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, and non-believers who subscribe to no God-based belief systems are, and have been, permanent residents of Muslim states during all time periods. Hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims live in Muslim states as migrant workers. Since the dawn of Islam in the seventh century, non-Muslim faith communities have lived in close proximity with Muslim communities, sharing language, culture, and natural and economic resources. Law-based efforts to offer fair and dignified treatment to non-Muslims have been an integral part of Islamic civilization. Every legal system, out of sheer necessity, must design standards of treatment for all communities under its jurisdiction, for no community is above or outside the realm of law. In the Western legal tradition, the distinction between citizens and aliens, with different sets of rights and obligations, continues to inform modern legal systems. Some legal systems practice blatant discrimination against aliens, legal and illegal; some, despite a commitment to equal protection of laws, discriminate in practice against racial and indigenous communities; some offer varying degrees of formal equality to resident communities. The modern human rights movement, in which many Muslim states are actively engaged as proponents, is dedicated to removing unacceptable forms of inequality that politically vulnerable communities face in contemporary nation-states.

Islamic law furnishes the concept of covenant that governs relations between Muslims and non-Muslims; and more importantly, under contemporary ijtihad, relations between non-Muslims and the Islamic state. Generally, the Qur'an mandates that every covenant be performed, particularly the covenants undertaken to protect the rights of the vulnerable (17:34).