The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 326
326. Essence of Islām II purpose of establishing peace and security. It was no part of the purpose of taking it up to have recourse to coercion in the matter of faith. [Sitārah Qaisariyyah, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, vol. 15, pp. 120-121]. I do not know from where our opponents have gathered that Islām was spread by the sword. God has set forth clearly in the Holy Qur'ān: 114 لا اكراة في الدين. That is: There is no compulsion in the religion of Islām. . Then who has prescribed the use of force for the spread of the faith, and what force was available for the purpose? Do those people who are converted by force set such an example of sincerity and faith that without any kind of wages or compensation two or three hundred of them issue forth to oppose a force of thousands; or when their number reaches a thousand they vanquish hundreds of thousands? Is it the characteristic of the forcibly converted ones that in the defence of the faith they should offer themselves to be slaughtered like sheep and should testify to the truth of Islām with the seal of their blood? Is it expected of them that they should be such lovers of Divine Unity that they should endure every hardship in their travels in the African desert and spread the message of Islām in those regions; or that they should similarly arrive in China, not as warriors but as dervishes and should so convey the message of Islām that millions of people of that country should become Muslims; or that they should arrive in India clad in the roughest stuff and should win a great part of Āryāvart to the allegiance of. Islām; or should carry the credo: 114. Al-Baqarah, 2:257 [Publisher]