Life of Ahmad — Page 763
as JIHAD 763 neither in earth nor in heaven by deifying a mortal man, and the Muslims did violence to humanity by unjustly drawing the sword upon their fellow-beings under the guise of jihad. Thus the Muslims took one road of violation and the Christians took the other. Unfortunately the majority of both nations look upon these infringements as equitable and each party regards the way it has chalked out for itself as the right road to heaven and all other ways as leading away from the goal. It should be remembered that the doctrine of jihad as it is understood and presented before the public by the Muslims is altogether unknown to Islam. The way in which they explain it serves only to generate savage qualities in the ignorant masses and blot out all noble qualities of humanity. This has actually happened in our own time and it is beyond the shadow of doubt that in all the inhuman murders committed by ignorant fanatics, who are totally unaware of the circumstances which forced the early Muslims to take up the sword, the real fault lies at the door of the Maulaw i s who privately inculcate doctrines resulting in such bloody deeds. We regret to remark here that as on the one hand the ignorant Maulaw i s, ignorant of the real excellence of Islam, drawing a veil over the true significance of jihad, teach the masses