Murder in the Name of Allah — Page 31
A Rebuttal of Maududian Philosophy religion?' The Meccans thought it was a victory. But it was this respite from armed conflict which gave the Holy Prophetsa much more time to spread the faith. The extent of his success can be gauged by the 10,000. Muslims who marched to Mecca with him in January 630. Previously, his largest force had been 3000 men. This was the strength of the. Muslim army which defended Medina when it was besieged by an army of 10,000 pagan Arabs. 35 The additional 7000 men were obviously converted to Islam during the two-year truce. People like. Amr b. al-As and Khalid b. Walid were converted at this time. The success of this peaceful penetration by Islam was so great that a puzzled Montgomery Watt counts it 'among the imponderabilia' and adds: 'Foremost among the reasons for this success of Muhammad's was the attractiveness of Islam and its relevance as a religious and social system to the religious and social needs of the Arabs. "36 Watt also says, as if directly addressing Maulana Maududi himself:. Had Muhammad not been able to maintain and strengthen his hold on the. Muslims by the sway of religious ideas of Islam over their imaginations, and had he not been able to attract fresh converts to Islam, the treaty of. Al-Hudaybiah would not have worked in his favour. . . . Any historian who is not biased in favour of materialism must also allow as factors of supreme importance Muhammad's belief in the message of the Quran, his belief in the structure of Islam as a religious and political system, and his unflinching devotion to the task to which, as he believed, God had called him. . . This expedition and treaty mark a new initiative on the part of Muhammad. 37. It is sad to note that while an orientalist puts the Holy Prophet's success down to 'the sway of the religious ideas of Islam', a leading Muslim of. Maulana Maududi's stature insists that it was through the sway of the sword after the battle of Hunayn that teeming thousands of Arabs accepted Islam. If these were the people whose souls were cleansed with the blade of the sword, then these were also the people who were the first to revolt after the Prophet's sa death. That answer to the Maulana's argument, however, does not explain the revolt. . In the past travel was difficult. There were no roads and therefore one's safety could not be guaranteed. It was, therefore, impossible for every Arab to come to the Prophets to learn about Islam at first hand, nor for the Prophet to visit every region of the peninsula. The Arab custom was that either a tribal delegation would be sent to the Prophetsa or a. Muslim delegation would be sent to the tribes to deliver the message of. Islam. There were discussions and debates, and after every question had 31