The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 322
322. Essence of Islām II and then devised a project of killing the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allāh be on him) himself, so that he and his companions were compelled to leave Mecca. . But his persecutors did not desist even then. They pursued him and treated him with every type of impertinence and continued to proclaim him false. They subjected the weak ones from among the Muslims who had been left in Mecca to extreme torment. Thus in the estimation of God Almighty, on account of their tyrannical behaviour, they became deserving of chastisement according to the eternal law of God. This chastisement was earned also by those who had helped the Meccans in their misconduct and by those who had on their own carried the torment of the Muslims and the ridicule of their faith to the extreme and used all their power to block the propagation of Islām. Thus those who drew their swords against Islām were destroyed by the sword on account of their wickedness. Then is it fair to object to this kind of fighting, forgetting the battles of Moses and other Prophets of Israel in which thousands upon thousands of suckling babies were slaughtered?. Such objections result from a spirit of mischief and deceit and disorderliness. The Christians sometimes make the response that the battles fought by the Holy. Prophet (peace and blessings of Allāh be on him) were characterised by too much tenderness towards the enemy in that those of them who accepted Islām escaped all punishment, suckling babies, women, old people, monks and travellers were all spared, nor were churches and synagogues demolished; while the Israeli prophets held all such practices lawful, so much so that more than 300,000 babies were slaughtered at one time. It is a strange conception that the battles fought by Islām