Murder in the Name of Allah — Page 22
Murder in the Name of Allah arrogance which prevents people from accepting the truth, stiff necks and proud heads bowed with humility. . As in Arabia, so in other countries, Islam's expansion was so fast that within a century a quarter of the world accepted Islam. This conversion took place because the sword of Islam cut away the veils which had covered men's hearts. ³. This portion of the Maulana's reasoning defeats his promise that. Islam establishes freedom of conscience. It also is repugnant to the spirit of Islam. One mistake leads to another. Finally, after 137 pages of sophistry, the Maulana declares: 'While it is incorrect to say that Islam converts with the sword, it is also wrong to say that the sword did not play any role in conversion'. 4. The Maulana began his book with the declared intention of proving that the wars fought by the Holy Prophets were ‘defensive'. He fought to establish freedom of conscience, yet ends up joining hands with. Islam's enemies. In doing so, the Maulana opens the doors for an orientalist onslaught. The prestige he enjoys among a small, but vocal, minority of Western-educated Muslims helps the orientalists, who bolster their anti-jihad arguments with the Maulana's brandished sword to 'play a role in the preaching of Islam'. . Less than two years after the Hijrah (the Prophet'ssa migration from. Mecca to Medina), his companions were confronted by a thousand. Meccans, determined to blot out Islam, its Prophetsa and his followers. It was dawn on Friday, 17th March AD 623 (17 Ramadan, 2 AH) when the. Meccans with 700 camels and a cavalry of 100 horses began descending towards the valley of Badr from the slope of Aqanqal, twenty miles south of Medina. There were just 313 Muslims there to defend Islam. They had only two horses and were so short of arms that when Ukkashah's sword was broken during the fighting, the Prophet could only replace it with a wooden club, which he used instead. Their situation became so desperate that the Prophetsa cried out: 'Allah! If this small band of. Muslims is annihilated today, no one will be left to worship Thee!". As Montgomery Watt puts it, Abu Jahl was ‘presumably hoping to get rid of Muhammad once and for all'. Will Durant agrees with Watt: 'If. Mohammed had been defeated his career might have ended there and then. " Abu Jahl's hopes were, however, not fulfilled and the Muslims successfully defended themselves against the well-equipped and far superior Meccan forces. . Islamic history has preserved the names of all 313 Companions of the 22