Through Force or Faith? — Page 156
?— A Reply to Pope Benedict XVI 156 this setting. One cardinal condition is the blatant aggression by the enemy. Therefore, what is being said here is that even if the People of the Book committed aggression, it would be justified to fight them. If they are vanquished and agree to pay jizya [expia- tion tax], war should not be prolonged. In fact, even their earlier transgression should be forgiven. Thus, in these verses, there is no injunction to forcibly convert people to Islam. ٍ عَن يَد means voluntary payment of jizya (T ā j al-‘Arūs). It means they agree to pay jizya and live in the country abiding by its laws. There should be no coercion. َ وَهُم ْ صَاغِرُون means the people who were responsible for fighting and disorder should lay down their arms and surrender to the current government. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah as says: It is evident from all these verses that the Jews and Christians of Arabia had become so corrupt and had become devious to such an extent that everything that was prohibited by God in their scriptures—namely, not to steal, not to consume the wealth of others wrongfully, not to shed blood unjustly, not to give false testimony, not to associate anything with God—they carried out all these unlawful acts with such eagerness as if they had taken these evil deeds to be their religion… Their presence was dangerous for the state and their mischief had exceeded all bounds. Therefore, a sane person can appreciate that chastisement of such criminals was necessary to establish general peace. The Holy Prophet s as not only had the sta- tion of the Prophet, he was also made responsible for con- ducting the affairs of the state like an effective ruler. As