How to be Free from Sin — Page 11
11 however, persisted in their evil designs, and continued their efforts to kill him even in Medina. Under these cir- cumstances, the Muslims had to defend themselves and to avenge those who attacked them unjustly. The Islamic wars were not fought to spread the faith but only to pro- tect the lives of the Muslims. Can any reasonable person believe that Islam was unable to prove the Oneness of God before the idolaters—who worshipped stone idols and other inanimate objects, and were engrossed in all kinds of vice—and had to resort to the sword for this rea- son? God forbid! These allegations are groundless and those who make them, do a grave injustice to Islam by concealing the truth. The Maulaw i s have played their part in perpetrating this injustice, but the Christian clerics are no less guilty, for they too have impressed these thoughts in the minds of the Muslims by highlighting the edicts of foolish Maulaw i s. When Muslims hear their own Maulaw i s issuing edicts in favour of Jihad, and hear the Christian clerics—who are also eminent scholars—raising the same objection against Islam, they fall prey to the concept that Islam encourages this kind of Jihad. Both these positions have given rise to these unfounded objections against Islam. Had the Christian clergy not adopted this course, and had they honestly and truthfully admitted that the edicts of the Maulaw i s are based on sheer ignorance, and that the cir- cumstances which had necessitated the Jihad during the early days of Islam are not present in this age, the very notion of this kind of Jihad would have disappeared from