The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 242
CH. 22 R. 6. AL-HAJJ PT. 17 أذِنَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقْتَلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا Permission to fight is given. 40 وَاِنَّ اللهَ عَلَى نَصْرِهِمْ لَقَدِيرٌ ) to those against whom war is made, because they have been wronged and Allah indeed has power to help them- 2470 no declare the sacredness and beliefs and convictions. The inviolability of this, his most precious possession. "Let there be compulsion in religion," says the Quran (2:256). It abounds in verses of like import which shows that not only Islam does not encourage the use of force for the spread of its teaching but positively and in most emphatic terms forbids and condemns it and gives man unrestricted choice in the matter of his faith and belief. Here are some of them: Say, 'O ye men, now has the truth come to you from your Lord. So whosoever follows the guidance, follows it only for the good of his own soul, and whosoever errs, errs only against it. And I am not a keeper over you (10:109). And say, It is the truth from your Lord; therefore let him who will, believe, and let him who will, disbelieve (18:30). We know best what they say; and thou hast not been appointed to compel them in any way. So admonish by means of the Quran him who fears My warning (50:46). So remind. Thou art only one to remind. Thou art not a warden over them (88:22-23). These verses, as it were, make an unequivocal declaration about the freedom of human conscience or the Magna Carta of the liberty of man's 2156 injunctions embodied in these verses have not remained a dead letter. The Holy Prophet and his Companions lived up to them and strictly obeyed them even if acting upon them meant loss of prestige as it happened at the time of signing of the Treaty of Hudaibiya, or when the Jewish tribe of Banū Naḍīr, on their banishment from Medina, were allowed to take with them the scions of the Muslim families of Aus and Khazraj, much against the remonstrances of their Muslim relatives, because they (the scions) had chosen to go with the Jews (Abū Dāwūd Kitābul-Jihād, & Manthūr). It is also on record that ‘Umar, the second Caliph, presented Islam on several occasions to a Christian slave of his, Asbaq by name, but every time he refused to accept it (Manthūr). Instances of such tolerant behaviour on the part of the leaders of Islam during the ages can easily be multiplied. In the face of such magnanimous display of religious tolerance it seems unbelievable that Islam should have been accused of fanaticism and bigotry or of having been spread by force, but it is a sad fact of history that it has been so maligned and accused by its hostile critics. 2470. Commentary: According to consensus of