The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 161
THE PROMISED MESSIAH AND MAHDI force but it was his mission to propagate Islam with peaceful methods. There is no aggressive fighting in Islam. Islam allows fighting only in self defence. . To end this subject we quote below from writings of the. Promised Messiah: 1. "The commonly held doctrine professed by some of the divines that the Promised Messiah will descend from heaven and will fight the disbelievers and will not accept the poll tax and will offer only the choice of death or Islam, is utterly false and is brimful of all types of error and mischief, and is utterly opposed to the Holy Quran and is only an invention of the impostors". (Nurul Haq, Part I, p. 67) 2. "There is no compulsion in Islam. There are only three types of wars in Islam: (1) Those undertaken in self defence. (2) Those undertaken as chastisement for aggression. (3) Those undertaken for the establishment of freedom of conscience, that is to say for breaking up the strength of those who inflicted death upon such person who accepted Islam. . As Islam does not permit the use of force or coercion for the purpose of its propagation, it is altogether vain and absurd to wait for a bloody Mahdi or a bloody Messiah: for it is not possible that anyone should appear who should convert people to Islam by the sword contrary to the clear teaching of the Quran" (Jesus in India, p. 10). 3. "In short, at the time of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, the basis of Islamic Jihad was that. God's wrath had been aroused against the tyrants. But living under the rule of a benign government, as is the Government of our Queen and Empress, it is not Jihad to entertain rebellious designs against it but it is a barbaric idea which is born of ignorance. To entertain illwill against a government under whom life is lived in freedom and there is complete security and religious obligations can be discharged to the full, is a criminal step and not Jihad. . . . . Thus, God Almighty had established me on the principle that sincere obedience and gratitude 161