Ahmadiyya Movement — Page 39
39 who are guilty of it beyond the pale of humanity ? Those who express their abhorrence at the loss of a man’s physical freedom must consider that the man who is thus punished was seeking by means of the sword forcibly to prevent men from worshipping God and to hand over their souls to the bondage of Satan. Had he been successful in his object, thousands and hundreds of thou- sands of men should have been compelled to forsake the truth and would have been consigned to eternal darkness. Does such a man deserve to have his freedom restored to him till he repents of his guilt and is truly sorry for his conduct ? For what is sla- very ? It is the restricting of a man’s freedom till he discharges his share of the responsibility for his guilt and he pays his share of the cost of the war. Is there any moral or political reason which prohibits the taking of prisoners of war, and to get work out of them? Strangely enough, it appears to be regarded as permissible and proper to keep whole countries in the hands of social, political or financial slavery, till they are able to pay their quota of heavy war indemnities, and yet the keeping of only such men who have been guilty of actual participation in a war of the kind that is mentioned above, in imprisonment till they are able to pay their respective shares of the cost of the war, is con- demned as improper and inhuman. Islam provides that every prisoner of war who is held in slavery is entitled as of right to purchase his liberty on payment of his proportionate share of the expenses of war. If, therefore, a slave does not prefer his slavery to his freedom, why does not he, or why do not his relatives or his countrymen, purchase his freedom by payment to that op- pressed nation whose religion they had attempted to destroy, his share of the expenses of the war which was thus forced upon the latter? Islam and Interest Again, the teaching of Islam concerning the prohibition against the payment or receipt of interest are objected to; whereas in-