A Critique of Professor Arnold G. Toynbee’s Understanding — Page 64
64 his cause with alacrity and apparent devotion. There was no ‘disaffected’ inhabitants at Makkah, as there had been at Madinah. Within a few weeks we find two thousand of the citizens fighting faithfully by his side. ” ( Vol. IV, p. 133 ) Moreover, describing the results left behind by the effective invitation to Islam that the Holy Prophet carried out, he writes: “And what have been the effects of the system which, established by such instrumentality, Mahomet has left behind him? We may fr eely concede that it banished for ever many of the darker elements of superstition which had for ages shrouded the Peninsula. Idolatry vanished before the battle - cry of Islam; the doctrine of unity and infinite perfections of God, and of a special all - perv ading Providence, became a living principle in the hearts and lives of the followers of Mahomet, even as it had in his own. An absolute surrender and submission to the divine will (the very name of Islam) was demanded as the first requirement of the religi on. Nor are social virtues wanting. Brotherly love is inculcated within the circle of the faith; orphans are to be protected, and slaves treated with consideration; intoxicating drinks are prohibited, and Mahomtanism may boast of a degree of temperance unk nown to any other creed. ” ( Ibid, pp. 320 - 321 ) It can not be proven from the historical record that a single person entered the fold of Islam under the threat of force or coercion. There is not a single example. Writing on the topic of the grandness of Muhammad’s Prophetic mission, and his successful discharge of his Prop hetic duties and obligations, Muir