Star of the Empress — Page 11
11 is that there are two extremely dangerous and utterly erroneous views held by Muslims. They consider Jihad of the sword for the sake of religion as being an article of faith and this obsession leads them to believe that by murdering an innocent person they have done a very good deed. This belief has been corrected to a large extent amongst a majority of the Muslims in British India and the hearts of thousands of Muslims have been cleansed by my efforts which span twenty-two to twenty-three years. However, there is no doubt that in some foreign countries these thoughts are still actively held. It is as if these people have understood violence and compulsion to be the core and essence of Islam. However, this view is absolutely false. The Qur’an clearly commands not to raise the sword in order to spread Islam and that the innate qualities of the religion should be presented and that others should be attracted through pious models. Do not think that in the early days of Islam use of the sword was commanded, because the sword was never wielded to spread religion. Quite the contrary, it was drawn in self-defence against enemy attacks or in order to establish peace. Compulsion in faith was never the objective. It is a pity that this fault still exists among wrongdoing Muslims. For their reformation, I have distributed an excess of fifty thousand short and detailed books and leaflets in quantity, throughout the country and abroad. I am hopeful that soon a time shall come when the Muslims will be cleared of this blemish. The other fault which exists within our Muslim people is that they await a militant Messiah and Mahdi whom they presume will fill the world with blood. This notion is completely false. It is written in our authentic books that neither shall the Promised Messiah