Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din

“ Thus, the question of war has always remained a most difficult and intricate problem. War could neither be dispensed with in the interest of peace nor could it be pursued on the lines laid down in bygone days. The world had urgent need of a true reform in this respect, and it has come in the form of Islam. ”

“ The history of warring peoples has proved it. Those who were once an embodiment of oppression and a curse to humanity on account of their prowess became as gentle as lambs under the salubrious influence of Divine Revelation, and won the title of the "Gentleman Soldier" from the world. ”

“ The protection of life and property is a common instinct, but it has often served as a pretext for oppression and tyranny, We are not free from inordinacy, and if we need something to put us on the right path, war is indispensable in order to restrain those who would otherwise be beyond our control. ”

“ Islam came to maintain the peace of the world, as its very name shows, and permitted the unsheathing of the sword in defence of life and property and religion, where they were disturbed without any just cause. ”

“ This state of affairs in religion has been called "Faith for God" in the Qur-án, that is to say, everyone must be allowed to choose his own faith and worship his God in the manner he thinks right. It is a disturbance of this state of things that makes a Muslim draw the sword against any person, Muslim or otherwise, who violates the above conditions. Even a Freethinker could take no exception to this Golden Rule. Thus liberty of conscience was a thing unknown before Islam. People used to believe in the Divine origin of their respective faiths. ”

“ The verse, on the other hand, leaves no doubt that the idolaters and the non-Muslims were not to be slain on account of their religion. In the words of Sale, as he notes under the very verse, "The Muslim had to give such idolaters a safe conduct that they may return home again, in case they should not think fit to embrace Mohammedanism" I have failed to find such liberal treatment of a man, an enemy, by his adversary anywhere else. I will refer here my readers to a few more verses of the Holy Qur-án which will, I fancy, decide the question of the place of war in Islam. ”

“ Even in time of war a Muslim soldier is forbidden to touch an alien's house of worship. He has to spare the lives of religious teachers. [2] It is a pity, therefore, to find that the civilized nations of to-day, when engaged in the Great War, could not observe the above rules. Churches were demolished, mostly in France and Belgium, and priests were murdered in the war. ”

“ The feeling in Islam for religious freedom is so strong that a Muslim is enjoined to act as a policeman, as it were, in the protection of all religious houses. For example, a Muslim is ordered to protect a Christian church even from a Muslim attack. The Qur-án is too clear on the point to allow of any other conduct ”

“ In other words, we need ethics of war, as war is one of the essentials of our civilization, and a Warrior-Prophet was needed to act as an exemplar in this respect. We fail to find any healthy principle of war in the Bible. The Israelite fighting aimed at the extinction of enemies, and sowed vengeance and rancour in human hearts. Since the Prince of Peace did not come for peace but for fire and sword, as he said himself, he asked his disciples to sell even their clothes in order to purchase weapons of war. ”

“ They drove the ancient people of India to their mountain fastnesses. They would not leave even a breathing-space to their enemies. We often hear nowadays the Hindus in India boasting of Aryan civilization, but if it inspired its people with the worst kind of hatred against the Untouchables—the residue of the Indian aborigines—it could not claim even a semblance of refinement and good manners. The Untouchables, even to-day, are not allowed, in India, many of the rights of humanity ”

“ These institutions are, after all, human institutions. No man can be bound by another's injunction if it is at all likely to go against his interest. But if he finds himself so bound he tries to find means to get rid of the obligation. Treaties in Europe are meant for the waste-paper basket. They are honoured more in the breach than in the observance. We need a word from God Himself on this subject which may act as an article of our faith. ”

“ So Muhammad ordered them either to bear the persecution with patience but never reject their principles, or to leave the country and remove themselves from the scene of affliction; but never to submit to resistance in such a way as to reject their own beliefs. ”

“ Europe already possesses enough of arms and ammunition to keep others under her subjection, and the proposal of disarmament in the League is simply to disable the East from recouping their shattered military Materiel. ”

“ So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them ”

“ That the Muslim wars in those days were against those who tried to extirpate Islam from the surface of the earth, and not against the non- Muslims of the world, appears clearly enough from verse 123 of the chapter on Immunity: "O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness ”