Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 391
391 "There is no compulsion in the religion of Islam. " This being the commandment of God in His Holy Book, who was it who gave orders to exercise compulsion? And what means were there to constrain men to accept the faith? Does compulsion create in the compelled that devotion and steadfastness with which the followers of the Holy Prophet fought against over- whelming odds without receiving any salary? When they num- bered two or three hundreds they fought against thousands, and when they numbered thousands they defeated millions- To protect Islam from the attacks of the enemy, they allowed their heads to be cut off like sheep. They bore testimony to the truth of Islam with their blood. They had so great a passion to spread the Unity of God in the world that they went to the deserts of Africa undergoing severe privations to preach the Unity of God there. Then suffering all sorts of trouble they went to China, not as warriors but as humble preachers, and their preaching was blessed with such good results that millions of men profes- sed the faith, Then they came to India, clad like dervishes in sackcloth, delivered their message to the natives of Arya Varta so that many of them embraced Islam. And on the west they carried their message of the Unity of God to the farthest end of Europe. Say truly, was that the work of men who were driven into Islam at the point of the sword and who though professing to be believers were still infidels at their heart ? Nay that was the work of men whose hearts were full of the light of faith and in whose hearts the love of God reigned supreme. What is the teaching of Islam ? The chief object of Islam is to establish the Unity and majesty of God on earth, to extirpate shirk and to weld all nations into one people by bringing about a religious union among them. All other religions and all other prophets had their attention confined only to one people and one country.