The Gulf Crisis and New World Order — Page 172
Tenth Friday Sen11011 Ja11 25, 1991 which at times is, unfortunately, forgotten by Muslims. They foment the concept of some form of Islamic nationalism and thus bring the Muslims in conflict with non-Muslims. The fact is that we have to win the heart of the world. Hearts cannot be won by wars but are won in a different way. The struggle for the deliverance of a spiritual message entails procedures which have no resemblance to worldly fights. God taught various prophets different principles and strategies to wage th. is "spiritual battle" which cannot be applied to political wars. For instance, the weapon that Jesus Christ", gave to the Christian was that if he is slapped on one cheek then he should offer the other. This is the approach that was prescribed to wage spiritual battles. In practice, however, the Christians failed to grasp the meaning of this precept. As it was impracticable in every day life, they discarded it altogether. Therefore, not a single country in the world today acts on this wonderful spiritual teaching of Jesus. . . If one misreads an injunction for a spiritual battle and tries to superimpose it on to a purely military affair, one is bound to find such an injunction impossible of perfonnance. This can result in the total rejection of the spiritual injunction, even for appropriate occasions. The same is the situation today. Religion is concerned with the spiritual world and its battle is fought in spiritual terms. When it is said that Islam was created to triumph over all other religions in the world, this does not imply that one should pick up the sword and behead those who reject Islam. It does not mean that the promise of peace is only in favour of those who bow their heads and accept Islam, and for the rest, the Muslims become a message of war and disorder. This principle does not appeal to wisdom, neither is it practicable in the world nor will it ever succeed. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community should always have sight of this important principle. When we talk of striving for and aiming to establish the supremacy of Islam over all mankind, we talk in the terminology taught to us by the Holy Quran and by Muhammad•u. It is unrelated to the military terminology of the world. This is the reason that today, Muslims who have failed to understand or who cannot understand these principles because their leaders have led them astray, find themselves in difficulties everywhere. Day by day this situation is worsening. There are weak 172