There is a view in the west that Islam was a militant Faith, spreading through the force of sword.
Firstly, although we who rest comfortably in our armchairs drinking tea abhor swords and guns, it should be pointed out that fighting with swords is not by itself a wrong thing.
If a person rose up in London with a gun and started shooting innocent people as they passed, you would expect the police to respond with all the force necessary to overwhelm the person from doing so, and that might mean the person getting killed: for saving the person is only secondary to stopping him from his rampant killing.
There is in fact a good case for saying that the more overwhelming the force used the better, as the situation is sorted out as quickly as possible and sends a clear warning to those who might be inclined to do the same, and reassures the people who live around that their lives are in safe hands.
Of course, the UK now lives in relatively peaceful times, and so only a police force is needed to keep internal order.
But what if the UK had no government or law, anarchy flared up everywhere amidst competing clans, gangs and tribes, and status and oppression were the order of the day, women had no rights and girls were buried alive to their deaths. You would beg every day that someone strong rise up and take firm and forceful control of the land using both education and force, create law, order and good will where there was none, and establish it on a firm footing.
This is precisely what Muhammad did for Arabia. Muhammad was born in Mecca in 570 AD, and in 610 AD embarked upon a spiritual mission of wide-ranging reform within the land, calling people to God, mercy and justice, warning them of the impending judgment upon their ways if they did not change. For the first 12 years, he and his followers were treated abysmally, mercilessly persecuted yet returning kindness and gracious words where they could; at one time they were blockaded and denied all resources in the desert; many of the followers of Muhammad's message were sent away for their safety to another land. When death hung over Muhammad himself, he moved away in 622 AD to the neighbouring city of Medina where he began to build up a community comprising of the Jews, Christians and Muslims that lived there.
Despite being 300 miles away, for various reasons, friction arose between the two cities, and subsequent battles came to pass. It is very clear from the outset, that Muhammad's teaching was that only defensive warfare could be fought, and only organised by his order. It is also clear that this was warfare by a multi-religious community rather than by a single religion.
"Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you: but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors." (Qu'ran 2:190-3)
It's fair to say that Arabs of the time were a hot-headed rough bunch, and you can't guarantee that individuals who claimed to be Muslims didn't sometimes provoke or start things, in which case blood-money could be paid. Much of Arab history is of a late date, and the only trustworthy source for Muhammad's policies is the Qu'ran, which has been quoted. In general, Muhammad's policies were pretty sensible and fair:
| Group Wants to | Muhammad's Response | Comments |
| Join the Community | Loving Involvement | Any tribes or individuals may at any time join with the Medina community, from which a mutual brotherhood of loving service arises, where before there had been generations of ingrained hostility; often you'd get individuals fleeing for their lives to Muhammad's community from the persecution of their own tribe, women and slaves would join for the far better conditions, whilst if whole tribes join they would naturally stay where they were. |
| Ally the Community | Mutual Protection | Those who wish to ally themselves, whatever their beliefs, will receive assistance when they are attacked, but must give assistance in return when the Medina community is attacked; if they take advantage of receiving protection from the Medina community but fail to assist with protection in return when called upon, they will be treated as with the attackers. |
| Receive Protection from Agressors | Pay a Tax | Those who wish to receive protection from the general anarchy of the times but not give any protection in return, could give a payment instead, just so long as they did not assist any attackers; if they did assist attackers, they would be treated as with attackers or betrayers. |
| Not get involved | Leave to themselves | Those who kept to themselves, whatever their beliefs, would have nothing imposed or expected of them. |
| Attack the Community | Repulse attacks until one of the above options occurs | Those who attack the fledgeling community in order to cause great bloodshed, whatever their beliefs, will have their ringleaders removed and that tribe added under the civil arrangements and directives of Medina, or occasionally have the attacking group exiled. |
| Aid and Abet Attacks on the Community | Individual Punishment | In addition, spies have to be dealt with, by admonishing, punishment or exile, depending on the circumstances and consequences of what they are doing. |
These are policies of justice borne not out of religious beliefs, but of simple community necessity. The idea of just practising forgiveness and letting people annihilate your community simply will not work, it makes the aggressors bolder and does no service to those who you should be protecting. Through these policies, the community increased in size as it encountered friction and attacks.
It is also highly likely Muhammad would have put an exclusion zone some distance around Medina, intrusion of which would have been treated as trespass or defiance, and there comes a point in any situation where two cities go from fighting on an informal battle-by-battle basis, in which Muhammad would only have permitted defensive fighting, to a formal state of war, where subsequently all fighting is seen as one act until the situation is resolved by voluntary or involuntary capitulation; in a formal state of war, you can morally fight individual non-defensive battles so long as you have not started the formal state of war, and are ready to leave it the moment the aggressor shows a genuine change of attitude toward resolving the situation.
Muhammad proclaimed himself as a messenger to remedy the people of Arabia, and at the time of his passing, he had successfully united the whole of Arabia into a single spiritual community, his mission exactly fulfilled.
After Muhammad's passing, the Islamic community spread far and wide across the globe. Presumeably the early Arabs will have endeavoured to continue the spirit of Muhammad's example, including the approach to fighting, although being human they would also have followed their own methods and goals. Muhammad sorted out Arabia, and Arabia went forth and sorted out the world.
At the time of Muhammad's passing, there were two very militant and corrupt religious superpowers neighbouring disastrously in the world, the Zoroastrian Empire in Persia (Sassanid) and the Christian Empire (Byzantine) around the Mediterranean. Since the third century, they had together kept large areas of the world in a state of perpetual unrest and waste, the continual coming and going of armies, massacres, looting and war taxation wearing down countries steadily until only shattered and ruinous cities remained upon a countryside of scattered peasants.
At the time of Muhammad, the world had just been decimated by a 50-year plague, and both the Byzantines and Persians had embarked upon vast conquests, annexing large areas of the world to their two neighbouring antagonistic empires, with many lands continually alternating between their two hands. The price of such endless warring, was the widescale impoverishment, oppression and destruction of human culture, fellowship and security, a material and social bankrupcy in which science and philosophy were dead husks, and everywhere ordinary people were overburdened with taxes paying for continual war, and oppressed by religious intolerance; there was no one with the courage, freedom and insight to sort out these two warring empires as they fought each other in a duel to the death as hordes of tribes attacked them all around; the whole globe was aflame with war. With the South of Arabia under Persian rule and the Byzantine empire said to have sent out a vast army toward Arabia to crush the Muslims even in Muhammad's own lifetime (the Muslims marching out and thwarting it), it was unavoidable that the Arab community would enter the fray; with the two Superpowers still fighting on like wounded dragons that cannot conquer the other, yet exhausted with wars and denuded of the vitality of fellowship, the forces that marched under the banner of Islam, tiny though they were, swept them both away, in one case a small army defeating the combined forces of the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire and also the Christian Arabs; the Muslims offered people a freedom from oppression, a light burden of tax, the flourishing of arts and science and the permeation of the world with a new and vital force of justice, vision and endeavour, and to those who joined them, a common spiritual brotherhood. Those who did not wish to become Muslims were free to hold to their own beliefs with a reasonable degree of communal autonomy, although they had to pay an extra means-based tax on every male adult, which basically meant the Muslims would protect them freely from the turmoil of outside aggressors whilst they were exempt from any return service and (I think) the tax provided an insurance for them as they grew old or invalid. The Muslims did not pay this, though they had other taxes, for the simple reason that Muslims were expected to perform such services these non-muslims were exempt from. This financial difference also became a reason people gradually might choose to be a Muslim.
Of the chaotic state of Persia at the time of the coming of the Arabs, it is written: "After less than a year as emperor, Khavad died, and his seven-year-old son, Ardashir III succeeded him, Ardashir ruling in name only until general Shahrbaraz killed the boy and usurped the throne. In turn, Shahrbaraz' own soldiers killed him and dragged his body through the streets of Ctesiphon. Anarchy swept through the Persian Empire, already exhausted by twenty-six years of war. In the coming four years, nine men tried to gain the throne, and all disappeared through flight, assassination or death by disease. Cities and provinces declared their independence. And with Zoroastrianism closely associated with the state and the rule of the Sassanids, the breakdown of Sassanid rule was a blow against it."
It would be impossible to demonstrate now who actually started the wars first, or whether or not Muhammad would have approved of these battles after his passing; if the Muslims had remained within Arabia, they would have soon had to fight these two superpowers. The Muslims were not fighting peaceful empires that coexisted with others, but were engaging Byzantine and Persian armies that had been on the rampage for a long time, rescuing the lands from their madness. As is so often the case in ages past, the problem is not with villages and ordinary people who universally want to get on with their daily lives, but the kings, courts, politicians and their armies who embroil the whole world in the turmoil of their ambitions.
Treaty of Jerusalem
In 614, Zoroastrian forces sacked Jerusalem, massacring 90,000 Christians, burning to the ground many Christian churches and carrying prized Christian relics back to Persia.
Compare that Zoroastrian victory, with the Muslim victory over Jerusalem:-
"In the name of Allah, the merciful Benefactor! This is the assurance granted to the inhabitants of Aelia [Jerusalem] by the servant of God, 'Umar, the commander of the Believers. He grants them safety for their persons, their goods, churches, crosses - be they in good or bad condition - and their worship in general. Their churches shall neither be turned over to dwellings nor pulled down; they and their dependents shall not be put to any prejudice and thus shall it fare with their crosses and goods. No constraint shall be imposed upon them in matters of religion and no one among them shall be harmed. No Jew shall be authorised [by Muslims] to live in Aelia with them [the Christians resented the Jews after what they had done in 614 AD]. The inhabitants of Aelia must pay the gizya [protection tax] in the same way as the inhabitants of other towns. It is for them to expel from their cities Roums [Byzantians] and outlaws. Those of the latter who leave shall be granted safe conduct... Those who would stay shall be authorised to, on condition that they pay the same gizya as the inhabitants of Aelia. Those of the inhabitants of Aelia who wish to leave with the Roums, to carry away their goods, abandon their churches and Crosses, shall likewise have their own safe conduct, for themselves and for their Crosses. Rural dwellers (ahl 'I-ard) who were already in the town before the murder of such a one, may stay and pay the gizya by the same title as the people of Aelia, or if they prefer they may leave with the Roums or return to their families. Nothing shall be exacted of them.
Witnesses: Khaled b. Al-Walid, 'Amr b. Al-Aas, 'Abdar-Rahman b. 'Awf Muawiya b. Abi Sufyan, who wrote these words, here, in the year 15."
This agreement by the Muslims is exactly just as the agreements they made with other places they conquered, and explains why Muslim power spread so rapidly.
According to Wikipedia, "In the 7th century, the Sassanid dynasty was overthrown by the Arabs. Although some of the later rulers had Zoroastrian shrines destroyed, generally Zoroastrians were included as People of the Book and allowed to practice their religion. Mass conversions to Islam were not desired or imposed, in accordance with Islamic law. However, there was a slow but steady movement of the population of Persia toward Islam. The nobility and city-dwellers were the first to convert. Islam spread more slowly among the peasantry and the dihqans, or landed gentry. Later, the jiyza, a poll [protection] tax imposed on non-Muslims, probably accelerated the process."
This is borne out in a letter written by a non-muslim to a Persian prior to 659 AD:
"You alone of all the peoples of the earth have become estranged from every one of them. And because of this estrangement from all these, the influence of the present error came to prevail with ease among you. For the one who has seduced you and uprooted your churches was first seen among us in the region of Radan, where the pagans (hanpe) are more numerous than the Christians. Yet, due to the praiseworthy conduct of the Christians, the pagans were not led astray by him. Rather he was driven out from there in disgrace; not only did he not uproot the churches, but he himself was extirpated. However, your region of Persia received him, pagans and Christians, and he did with them as he willed, the pagans consenting and obedient, the Christians inactive and silent. As for the Arabs [Muslims], to whom God has at this time given rule (shultana) over the world, you know well how they act towards us. Not only do they not oppose Christianity, but they praise our faith, honour the priests and saints of our Lord, and give aid to the churches and monasteries. Why then do your Mrwnaye [inhabitants of a city in Persia] reject their faith on a pretext of theirs? And this when the Mrwnaye themselves admit that the Arabs have not compelled them to abandon their faith, but only asked them to give up half [or part?] of their possessions in order to keep their faith [i.e. as non-Muslims to pay to be exempt from the duty of fighting to protect all the people of all faiths]. Yet they forsook their faith [to gain financially], which is forever, and retained the half [?part] of their wealth, which is for a short time. (Isho'yahb III, Ep. 14C, 251 [pp. 180-181])"
To the Followers of the Nazarene
Translated by Anton F. Haddad 1902
This oath, entrusted by Mohammed to his Caliphs, is an expression of his authoritative command to them as to their attitude toward the followers of Christ throughout the whole world. The oath referred to was issued by the prophet Mohammed to the Christian Monks of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai. A copy of it was translated into Turkish, while the original is still preserved in the treasury of the Sultan in Constantinople. This same Turkish copy was translated into Arabic by Naufal Effendi, a Christian of Tripoli, Syria; which translation is recorded in a book; written by him and known as Sunnajat-ut-tarab. The oath is as follows (a rather old translation):
This is a letter which was issued by Mohammed, Ibn Abdullah, the Messenger, the Prophet, the Faithful, who is sent to all the people as a trust on the part of God to all His creatures, that they may have no plea against God hereafter. Verily God is the Mighty, the Wise. This letter is directed to the embracers of Islam, as a Covenant given to the followers of Nazerene in the East and West, the far and the near, the Arabs and foreigners, the known and the unknown.
This letter contains the oath given unto them, and he who disobeys that which is therein, will be considered a disobeyor and a transgressor to that whereunto he is commanded. He will be regarded as one who has corrupted the oath of God, disbelieved His Testament, rejected His Authority, despised His Religion, and made himself deserving of His Curse, whether he is a Sultan or any other believer of Islam.
Whenever monks, devotees and pilgrims gather together, whether in a mountain or valley, or den, or frequented place, or plain, or church, or in houses of worship, Verily we are back of them and shall protect them, and their properties and their morals, by Myself, by My friends and by My assistants, for they are of My subjects and under My protection.
I shall exempt them from that which may disturb them; of the burdens which are paid by others as an oath of allegiance. They must not give anything of their income but that which pleases them; they must not be offended, or disturbed, or coerced or compelled. Their judges should not be changed or prevented from accomplishing their offices, nor the monks disturbed in exercising their religious order, or the people of seclusion be stopped from dwelling in their cells.
No one is allowed to plunder their pilgrims, or destroy or spoil any of their Churches, or houses of worship, or take any of the things contained within these houses and bring it to the houses of Islam. And he who takes away anything therefrom, will be one who has corrupted the oath of God, and, in truth, disobeyed His messenger.
Poll-taxes should not be put upon their judges, monks, and those whose occupation is the worship of God; nor is any other thing to be taken from them, whether it be a fine, a tax or any unjust right. Verily I shall keep their compact, wherever they may be, in the sea or on the land, in the East or West, in the North or South, for they are under My protection and the testament of My safety, against all things which they abhor.
No taxes or tithes should be received from those who devote themselves to the worship of God in the mountains, or from those who cultivate the Holy Lands. No one has the right to interfere with their affairs, or bring any action against them. Verily this is for aught else and not for them; rather, in the seasons of crops, they should be given a Kadah for each Ardab of wheat (about five bushels and a half) as provision for them, and no one has the right to say to them this is too much, or ask them to pay any tax.
As to those who possess properties, the wealthy and merchants, the poll-tax to be taken from them must not exceed twelve Dirhams a head per year (i.e. about 45 cents).
They shall not be imposed upon by any one to undertake a journey, or to be forced to go to wars or to carry arms; for the Islams have to fight for them. Do not dispute or argue with them, but deal according to the verse recorded in the Koran, to wit: 'Do not dispute or argue with the people of the Book but in that which is best.' Thus they will live favored and protected from everything which may offend them by the Callers to religion (Islam), wherever they may be and in any place they may dwell.
Should any Christian woman be married to a Musluman, such marriage must not take place except after her consent, and she must not be prevented from going to her church for prayer. Their churches must be honored and they must not be withheld from building churches or repairing convents.
They must not be forced to carry arms or stones; but the Islams must protect them and defend them against others. It is positively incumbent upon every one of the Islam nation not to contradict or disobey this oath until the Day of Resurrection and the end of the world." This is the oath which Mohd. Ibn Abdullah gave to the Christian nation, the fulfillment and promulgation of which has been agreed upon by all the witnesses who have hitherto attached their names.
It was signed by the great Assistants of Mohammed, as follows:
Ali Ibn Abi Talib
Abou Bekr Ibn Kahafat
Omar Ibn El-Khattab
Ottman Ibn Affan
Aboul Darda
Abou Harirat
Abdullah Ibn Masood
Abbas Ibn Abdoul Mottaleb
El-Fadhl Ibn Abbas
Ezzobier Ibn El-Awam
Talhat Ibn Abdullah
Said Ibn Maath
Said Ibn Abada
Thabit Ibn Nafees
Zied Ibn Thabit
Abou Hanifa Ibn Attaba
Hashim Ibn Obied
Maazam Ibn Kariesh
El-Harith Ibn Thabit
Abdoul Azim Ibn Haasan
Abdullah Ibn Omar Ibn El-Aas
Aamir Ibn Yasir
This oath was written by the hand of Ali Ibn Abi Talib in the worship place of the Prophet on the third day of Moharram in the second Year of El-Hajrih."
Modified: 2008-12-19