Life of Ahmad — Page 770
JIHAD as 770 men, and produce if possible another such instance of forbearance and fortitude from among the followers of Moses as or the apostles of Jesus as. In the end I may say that Islam permits fighting against only an agressor who attacks the Muslims and only so long as he keeps up the fight. Can such a religion be charged with encouraging propagation by the sword? The truth is that those who attempted to destroy Islam by the sword, were themselves destroyed by the sword; and nobody has ever condemned defensive wars. If Islam was propagated by the sword, how were those who wielded the sword won over to Islam? The religion which could win over such adherents,—men who sacrificed their all for the Faith and established it firmly in the land in the teeth of the united opposition of all nations, could it not convince others of its truth? Such a charge is a cruel libel against a religion which was the first to teach perfect toleration, and God has, therefore, sent the Promised Messiah as , without a sword, in order to demonstrate to the world that Islam can conquer the world by its beauty and charm, and the day is not distant when the world will acknowledge the truth of his claim. '