Understanding Islam — Page 85
83 similar to an Arabic idiom which says qataltul- khamra bil-m ā ’i , which does not mean “I have killed the water” but “I have mixed the wine with water such that it has lost its power”. 37 The root of uqaatilu , which is “qa-ta-la” , can also mean “to know something” (Lane). When Prophet Muhammad sa said uq ā tilun n ā sa , it only means that he shall struggle against the people until Islam is spread, by way of preaching and talking about the good teachings of Islam. Even if that was not the case and he was using the connotation of fighting literally, we should understand that he is only referring to a specific people as the Arabic word for people has the definite article “al” attached to it. Hence, this specifies the group of people who had initially started the fighting against the Muslims and wanted to destroy the Muslims. Prophet Muhammad sa only fought them in self-defense and never sought to convert anyone through the sword.