Through Force or Faith? — Page 203
Chapter 4 — Interaction with non-Believers 203 of the non-Muslims and he showed, by his example, how to act upon the injunctions of the Holy Quran. In the following we set down a few incidents from the life of the Holy Prophet s as. Gracious Dealings with Meccan Idolaters The idolaters of Makkah persecuted Muslims purely on religious basis; they forced them to leave their homeland. Some details of these atrocities can be found in chapter two and three of this book. One is appalled even by reading about them. Then the Meccans were not content with the Muslims leaving town and sent out armies against them repeatedly. In spite of all this the Holy Prophet always treated them kindly. One clear example of it is found in the gracious treatment of the idolaters at the time of the conquest of Makkah. When Muslims victoriously entered Makkah without any bloodshed, the Holy Prophet issued the instruction to make the announcement that anyone who closes his doors shall remain safe; anyone who enters the house of Abū Sufy a n (who was the chief of Makkah and had accepted Islam by then) shall remain safe; anyone who enters the Holy Mosque shall remain safe. Upon entering Makkah, he came to the House of God and gave a sermon and asked: ‘O Quraish! How do you think I am going to treat you?’ Quraish replied, ‘Whatever you decide, it will be good. You are our noble brother and the son of our noble brother’. He replied, ‘You are all free and there is no reckoning today. ’ The Meccan idolaters had always shown hatred and hostility towards Muslims. They had persecuted them and caused pain and grief. They had imposed wars on them in which