The Qur'an

172	THE MADINA PERIOD

from whose teaching he had borrowed all that was good in his own. Having now arrived at supreme power he could afford to cast aside all that had helped him on his way, and all this he now brought into subjection to himself.¹

It cannot be maintained, though it has been said, that Islam was or is propagated by peaceful methods alone.² It is admitted that such has sometimes been the case, and also that some forms of Christianity have been propagated by force; but the real point is, that the employment of force is neither

¹ It is interesting to note that the charges against Christians of looking upon the Virgin Mary as the third person of the Trinity is made in the last of all the Suras:—

O Jesus, Son of Mary, hast thou said unto mankind 'Take me and my mother as two Gods beside God? ' He shall say:
'Glory be unto Thee! it is not for me to say that which I know to be not the truth.' Sura Al-Ma'idah (v) 116.

Whether Muhammad knew better or not is uncertain, but, however that may be, this is his parting accusation. He could have ascertained the true facts of the case, for on Christian monuments found by Dr. B. Glaser in Yemen, the Sirwah inscription opens with the words, 'In the power of the all-Merciful and His Messiah and the Holy Ghost.' (Zwemer, Islam, p. 21.) To say the least, Muhammad here made a serious mistake, which it is difficult to reconcile with the verbal inspiration of the Qur'an.
² I have not quoted in the text the passage against unbelievers in Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 186-9, because it may refer to the pilgrimage to Mecca in the year A.H. 7, in which case it would be a late interpolation in this Sura. If this is so, it refers only to the Prophet's adversaries in Mecca, but of them it is said:—

Fight against them till there be no more tumult and the only worship be that of God. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 189. The Arabic text is:—

وَقَاتِلُوهُمْ حتّى لا َ تَكوُوْنَ فِتْنَةً وَ يَكُوْنَ الدّيْنٌُ لِلهِ

We may note that the verb is قتل kill; not جهد , make Jihad, so that all arguments based on the assertion that in the Qur'an جهد does not mean 'make war,' 'but strive earnestly' do not apply in such a verse as this, nor at all soften the fierceness of the order. If it does apply to the Meccans alone, it still proves that in Arabia Islam was, and was meant to be, propagated by the sword and not by peaceful methods alone. It is not a mere civil war against an established government that is here described; but a religious war on the Meccans who were not the subjects of the Prophet, as the ruler of Madina, and who did not want to accept either his political rule or his religious headship.

INTOLERANCE OF ISLAM

173

according to the spirit nor to the injunctions of the founder of Christianity: it is, however, in accordance with the mind and in conformity with the actions of Muhammad whose last words to his people on the point are plain. So long as Islam lives will these words ring in the ears of every orthodox Muslim, 'God do battle with them!' The legacy of the Prophet is no word of peace, but an inspiring war cry which as years roll on ever keeps alive a fanatical spirit. It is a sad ending to the life work of so great a man.¹ At the same

¹ This is the mildest view of the passage, but many Muslims do not so limit its application. They see in it a clear call to Jihad, or religious war, in all ages. The Tradition, 'Jihad will go on until the day of judgement,' الجهادُ مَاهِى اِلَى يَوم الْقِياَمِةَ is very often quoted with approval.
It is also said that the one hundred and eighty-ninth verse applies to all, except those who pay the tax called the jizya, or who are in alliance with Muslims; but in the Arabian peninsula no infidel was to be allowed to remain, and the life of no apostate (مرتد ) was to be spared (Khalasatu't-Tafasir, vol. i, p. 132); so that, in their possibly limited application, as in their probably extended one, these words conclusively show that Islam was not propagated by peaceful methods.
In the two hundred and forty-fifth verse we have the words قَاتِلو فى سَبِيْلِ الله —'Kill in the path of God.' The commentator Husain says on this:—

در راة خداى براى اشكارا كردن دين خداى

'Fight in God's cause to make known the religion of God.' (Tafsir-i-Husaini vol. i, p. 44.) Here again it is clearly said that Islam is to be made known by the sword.
Tirmidhi says 'the Prophet ordered that they should make war on men till they said "there is no God but God".'

قال رسول الله صلعم امرت ان اقاتل الناس حتى يقولوا لا اله الا الله

Jami'u't-Tirmidhi (Lucknow, ed. 1903) vol. ii, p. 468.
For evidence that this aggressive spirit still remains in Islam, see The Moslem World, July, 1913, pp. 290-305.
The most recent attempt to show that Islam is propagated by peaceful methods is in the very interesting book, called The Preaching of Islam, by T. W. Arnold. The author quotes at the commencement of his book (pp. 3-6) many of, if not all, the kindly expressions he can find in the Qur'an. Strange to say, though he quotes
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