The fact is Prophet Muhammad never called for spreading Islam with the sword. The Quran states in Surah (chapter) al-Nahl, v. 134, "Invite to the path of thy Lord with wisdom and good advice, and argue with them kindly, for Thy Lord is well aware of those who go astray and He is aware of those who follow true guidance."
Opinion of historian De Lacy O’Leary.
The best reply to the misconception that Islam was spread by the sword is givenby the noted historian De Lacy O’Leary in the book ’Islam at the cross road’(Page 8):
’History makes it clear however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweepingthrough the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conqueredraces is one of the most fantastically absurd myth that historians have everrepeated.’
According to the Quran, "There is no compulsion in religion" (2:256), thus, no one can be forced to become a Muslim. While it is true that in many places where Muslim armies went to liberate people or the land, they did carry the sword as that was the weapon used at that time. However, Islam did not spread by the sword because in many places where there are Muslims now, in the Far East like Indonesia, in China, and many parts of Africa, there are no records of any Muslim armies going there. To say that Islam was spread by the sword would be to say that Christianity was spread by guns, F-16's and atomic bombs, etc., which is not true. Christianity spread by the missionary works of Christians. Ten-percent of all Arabs are Christians. The "Sword of Islam" could not convert all the non-Muslim minorities in Muslim countries. In India, where Muslims ruled for 700 years, they are still a minority. In the U.S.A., Islam is the fastest growing religion and has 6 million followers without any sword around.
Indeed, the very next verse states that "if thou should punish (aggressors) punish only in proportion to the aggression inflicted upon you, but if ye be patient, it will be better for the patient."
The expansion of the Muslim Empire within 100 years after the Prophet's death has two reasons: the political ambitions of the Muslim Rulers and an invitation from the Christians who wanted to be liberated from the Byzantine rule by assisting the Muslims.
They gradually embraced Islam to the extent that they even changed their mother tongue to Arabic.
Which sword of Islam made Indonesia to become the largest Muslim country in terms of population size? Islam spread to many countries by Sufis, Indian and Arabian merchants and sailors who had exemplified to the natives the Islamic ideals of honesty, purity and faithfulness.
Muslims ruled Spain for 700 years, then why did they fail to convert the Christians into Islam by using the sword? The Muslims ruled India for about 1000 years. Today India's population is 1.1 billion, and at least 80 per cent are Hindus. Why the Muslims failed to convert the Hindus into Islam by using the sword?
The Qur'an declares:
There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error (Qur'an 2:256).
This Qur'anic verse shows that God has made truth and falsehood distinct from each other and people are therefore free to choose one or the other. No one can be forced to believe in a religion since belief is something very personal. One who follows the Qur'an will not try to force another person to believe.
Even the prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, could not force another person to become a Muslim. God revealed to him the following words:
And if your Lord willed, all who are in the earth would have believed together. Would you then compel people until they become believers? It is not for any soul to believe except by the permission of Allah (Qur'an 10:99-100).
This instruction from God makes it clear that anyone is mistaken who thinks that he or she can compel others to believe. If God wanted, He could make everyone believers, but rather has given them free choice. Even so, no one can believe upon being forced. It is the grace of God on a person that will result in belief. Is there a teaching more beautiful than this? How could any true follower of the Qur'an turn around and force his faith on others? On the contrary, the Qur'an instructs its followers on how to call people to true faith as follows:
Call unto the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the better way (Qur'an 16:125).
Where does the Qur'an tell anyone to call people at the point of a sword? It does not. God instructed his messenger, on whom be peace, as follows:
Say: This is my Way: I invite unto Allah with sure knowledge, I and whosoever follows me (Qur'an 12:108).
Here again, the call is to be made with sure knowledge, with clear evidence. Putting these instructions together, a Muslim understands that he or she must present Islam with clear evidence (i.e. sure knowledge) and use wisdom and fair exhortation to reason with people to accept the evidence for faith. Where is there any mention of sword in all of this?
No, Islam is not the religion of the sword by any mean. It is true that the sacred history of Islam began as an epic with the rapid spread of the Arabs outside of Arabia in an event that changed the world history forever. But this rapid expansion did not mean forced conversion of Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians or others who, still to that day, live with the Muslims. In Persia three hundred years after Islamic rule, much of the country was still Zoroastrian and the same is true for the other indigenous religions in all the other provinces conquered by the Muslims, be it Syria, Egypt, Iraq, North-Africa, Spain, etc… It took them centuries to have a Muslim majority or to become Arabic speaking. Up to this day, there is a Coptic-Christian minority in Egypt claiming to go back to the Pharaohs and to be the pure blood Egyptians. No body forced them to change their religion.
It is a common complaint among some non-Muslims that Islam would not havemillions of adherents all over the world, if it had not been spread by the useof force. The following points will make it clear, that far from being spreadby the sword, it was the inherent force of truth, reason and logic that wasresponsible for the rapid spread of Islam.
The early Islamic conquests were meant to liberate the indigenous populations in these countries from the Byzantines and the Persians who were oppressing and persecuting them. The indigenous populations were welcoming the Arab armies and that is why the conquests were so rapid. The populations did not resist and the Arabs had to fight the Byzantine, the Persian or the Visigoth armies just one battle in almost every country before the country was surrendering. There was no resistance but cooperation from the populations of these countries.
I would like to quote here Michael the Elder, Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch, writing in the latter half of the twelfth century, approving the welcoming attitude of his ancestors co-religionists at the advent of the Islamic armies in the 7th century and seeing the finger of God in the Arab conquests even after the Eastern Churches had had five centuries of experience with the Islamic rule. After recounting the persecutions carried on by Heraclius against what he was considering as Christian heretics, Michael the Elder wrote: “This is why the God of Vengeance- Who alone is all-powerful, and changes the empires of mortals as He will, giving it to whomsoever He will, and uplifting the Humble-beholding the wickedness of the Romans, who, throughout their dominions, cruelly plundered our churches and our monasteries and condemned us without pity – brought from the region of the south the sons of Ishmael, to deliver us through them from the hands of the Romans… It was no slight advantage for us to be delivered from the cruelty of the Romans, their wickedness, their wrath and cruel zeal against us, and to find ourselves at peace” (quoted by T.W. Arnold in the Preaching of Islam, Dwarf Publishers ltd. London, 1986, pp.54-56).
Islam means peace.
Islam comes from the root word ‘salaam’, which means peace. It also meanssubmitting one’s will to Allah (swt). Thus Islam is a religion of peace, whichis acquired by submitting one’s will to the will of the Supreme Creator, Allah(swt).
No compulsion in religion.
Withwhich sword was Islam spread? Even if Muslims had it they could not use it tospread Islam because the Qur’an says in the following verse:
’Let there be no compulsion in religion:
Truth stands out clear from error’
[Al-Qur’an 2:256]
Indonesia and Malaysia.
Indonesiais a country that has the maximum number of Muslims in the world. The majority ofpeople in Malaysia are Muslims. May one ask, ’Which Muslim army went toIndonesia and Malaysia?’
East Coast of Africa.
Similarly, Islam has spread rapidly on the East Coast of Africa. One may againask, if Islam was spread by the sword, ’Which Muslim army went to the EastCoast of Africa?’
More than 80% non-Muslims in India.
The Muslims ruled India for about a thousand years. If they wanted, they hadthe power of converting each and every non-Muslim of India to Islam. Today morethan 80% of the population of India are non-Muslims. All these non-MuslimIndians are bearing witness today that Islam was not spread by the sword.
Muslims ruled Spain for 800 years.
Muslims ruled Spain for about 800 years. The Muslims in Spain never used thesword to force the people to convert. Later the Christian Crusaders came toSpain and wiped out the Muslims. There was not a single Muslim in Spain whocould openly give the adhan, that is the call for prayers.
. 14 million Arabs are Coptic Christians.
Muslimswere the lords of Arabia for 1400 years. For a few years the British ruled, andfor a few years the French ruled. Overall, the Muslims ruled Arabia for 1400years. Yet today, there are 14 million Arabs who are Coptic Christians i.e.Christians since generations. If the Muslims had used the sword there would nothave been a single Arab who would have remained a Christian.
.Sword of the Intellect.
It isthe sword of intellect. The sword that conquers the hearts and minds of people.The Qur’an says in Surah Nahl, chapter 16 verse 125:
’Invite (all) to the way of thy Lord
with wisdom and beautiful preaching;
and argue with them in ways that are
best and most gracious.’
[Al-Qur’an 16:125]
. Increase in the world religions from 1934 to 1984.
An article in Reader’s Digest ‘Almanac’, year book 1986, gave the statistics ofthe increase of percentage of the major religions of the world in half acentury from 1934 to 1984. This article also appeared in ‘The Plain Truth’magazine. At the top was Islam, which increased by 235%, and Christianity hadincreased only by 47%. May one ask, which war took place in this century whichconverted millions of people to Islam?
. Islam is the fastest growing religion in America and Europe.
Todaythe fastest growing religion in America is Islam. The fastest growing religionin Europe in Islam. Which sword is forcing people in the West to accept Islamin such large numbers?
“Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America, a guide and pillar of stability for many of our people...” (Hillary Rodham Clinton, Los Angeles Times).1
“Moslems are the world’s fastest-growing group...” (The Population Reference Bureau, USA Today).2
“....Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the country.” (Geraldine Baum; Newsday Religion Writer, Newsday).3
“Islam, the fastest-growing religion in the United States...” (Ari L. Goldman, New York Times).4
The Junior Encyclopedia of Canada says:
Islam is the fastest-growing religion worldwide (The Junior Encyclopedia of Canada, Hurtig Publishers, Canada, 1990, Vol.2. p.396).
What explains this phenomenon? Who is forcing anyone today to become Muslims? Muslims are not even engaged in active preaching in any noticeable degree. People are voluntarily coming into Islam because they find that Islam makes sense.
Huston Smith discusses in his book entitled The World's Religions, on page 256, how the prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, granted freedom of religion to the Jews and Christians under Muslim rule. The prophet had a document drawn up in which he stipulated that Jews and Christians shall be "protected from all insults and vexations; they shall have an equal right with our own people to our assistance and good offices," and furthermore, that they shall "practice their religion as freely as the Muslims" (Quoted in The World's Religions by Huston Smith, Harper Collins, 1991, p.256). Smith points out that Muslims regard that document as "the first charter of freedom of conscience in human history and the authoritative model for those of every subsequent Muslim state" (p.256).
So, was Islam spread by the sword? The following short answer comes from Ira Zepp Jr., a non-Muslim, in his book entitled A Muslim Primer:
It is unfortunate that Islam has been stereotyped as the 'religion of the sword' or that Islam was 'spread by the sword.' The historical reality is that the expansion of Islam was usually by persuasion and not by military power. In any case, Islam cannot be forced on anyone; if profession of the shahadah [i.e. the declaration of Islam] is forced on someone, it is not true Islam (A Muslim Primer by Ira Zepp, Jr., 1992, Wakefield Editions, US, p.134).
While for the West, the spread of Islam is associated with the sword, hardly anyone ever mentions the brutal manner in which Northern Europeans were forcefully converted to Christianity, and the older European religions destroyed. Even the Crusades, carried out in the name of Christianity, did not succeed in changing the Western image of Christianity as the religion of peace and Islam as the religion of the sword. The atrocities of the Inquisition against the Muslims and the Jews of Spain and against all kind of the so-called “heretics”, the violent conversion of the Muslim Phillipinos who survived the horrors of slaughtering the Muslim population of Manila by the Spaniards, the eradication of whole ethnic groups in the newly discovered world of the Americas and Australia, because they were not Christians, the wars and colonization carried out in Asia and Africa by the Christians, all these violence were not enough to tarnish the reputation of Christianity as a religion of peace nor that of Islam as the religion of the sword!
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