How to be Free from Sin — Page 13
13 quite barbaric and shameful. But it would be wrong to lay the blame on the teachings of Islam. The blame lies wholly with those who do not value human life, and are so thirsty for blood that they eagerly await a Mahdi who, they believe, will come to cause bloodshed. They wish to convince people that Islam has always depended upon force and coercion for its propagation and that it does not possess an iota of truth. The Maulaw i s do not seem to be content with the decline of Islam, for they wish to drag it to even lower depths by advancing such doctrines. Rest assured, however, that God will never allow Islam to become a target of such as- persions. Our foolish opponents merely dig their own grave by adhering to the belief that Islam was spread by the sword from the very beginning. The time has now come to banish this false belief from our minds instead of promoting it. The Maulaw i s will do Islam a great favour if they can unite to dispel this notion from the minds of ig- norant Muslims. In so doing, they will not only help to reveal the excellences and beauties of Islam, but will also remove the aversion which religious opponents have for it on account of their misconceptions, and they will be able to benefit from this fountain of light. Just as a murderer is feared by everyone, particularly by women and children, the people of other faiths are like- wise afraid of those Muslims who hold such beliefs about Jihad. They are afraid of spending a night in their com- pany, lest these zealots should want to become gh a z i s [champions of Islam] by murdering their guests. There are