Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 255
255 shows that it was not the object of Islam to put any unbeliever merely as such to death, but that it was willing to forgive even when the criminal was found deserving of death. Islam had to grapple with other difficulties. Religious prejudice was so strong at the time that if a member of any tribe adopted the faith of Islam, he was either put to death or threa- tened with it, and persecution was so severe that life seemed a burden to him. Islam had therefore to face the difficulty of establishing -freedom of religious exercise and for this noble object ic had to undertake wars. The early wars of Islam fall under either of the above head- ings and it never took the sword for its own propagation or for any other purpose. Attempts were made to blot out its very existence and therefore it had to struggle for its life. It did not take up arms of its own accord but was compelled to do so. It had to defend itself and repel the dangerous foe. Later on, when its true -principles were forgotten, the doctrine was read in a different light and ignorance looked with pride upon a hateful course of life. But the fault can in no way be attributed to Islam. The source from which it flows is pure and undefiled. That this doctrine has been identified with Islamic teachings by shal- low-brained zealots who do not care for the life of man even so much as man should care for the life of a sparrow, cannot be questioned. But the innocent blood that has been spilt in the past does not satisfy them. They have yet a bloody Mahdi in store for the world and would like to exhibit the ugliest picture of Islam before all nations, that all people may know that Islam has always had to resort for its propagation to compul- sion and the sword, and that it has not a particle of truth in it to gain its conquest over hearts. It seems as if the holders of these views are not satisfied with humiliation and decadence