Chief of the Prophets — Page 92
Chapter Six 92 The Permission of Defensive War for the Muslims and Responses to the Related Objections of the non-Muslim Historians Now we enter into that part of the history where Muḥammad sa participated in wars. The efforts by non-Muslim historians to malign Islamic history with regards to the wars cannot be ignored. They have unsuccessfully tried to conclude from Islamic wars that Islam was spread by the sword. They also allege that whenever Muslims took up the sword, they did not stop killing their enemies until they accepted Islam. It is unfortunate that some Muslim leaders due to their lack of insight also agree with this assertion adding fuel to the fire. 1 In fact, the truth is that when the entirety of Arabia arose to wipe out the small party of the lovers of One God from the face of the earth, Muḥammad sa was given permission in the second year of the Migration to take up arms to defend the Muslims. 2 Allah the Exalted provided extraordinary help and support to the Muslims in those wars, so that the tribes that raised the sword against the Muslims ended up being wiped out themselves. The nations who went to the field for the destruction and annihilation of the Muslims themselves were destroyed. Therefore, some biased historians and unwise Muslim leaders assumed that Islam was spread by the sword; whereas the Qur’ān denies this view and the Aḥādīth reject it as well. History disproves it, and the weak state of the Muslims and their extraordinary oppression by the enemies also clearly negates it. All the evidence proves, beyond any doubt, that the Muslims were constantly subjected to oppression, hostilities, and tyranny, and were forced to take up the sword only in self-defence. The objection is also proven false when analyzed from another perspective. From Ṣafar, 2 A. H. , until the Treaty of Ḥudaibiyyah, the 1 Refer to Sīrat Khātamun-Nabiyyīn for a very beneficial essay about the principles of Jihād. 2 The Qur’ān, Al-Ḥajj 22: 40.