I say it my Hindu and non-Hindu critics and foes that it was the dynamism and magnanimity of Islam, which began spreading rapidly to all corners of the globe, and was accepted by the locals with open arms and hearts. The simplicity and reasonableness of Muslims' religious doctrines together wit h their practical example of a life of piety and righteousness attracted proselytes to Islam. Plunder and economic gain are baseless accusations levied against Islam's spreading so rapidly to all corners of the earth. It is an absurd and prejudiced attempt to put Islamic civilization on the same pedestal as Christendom with its barbaric record of crusades; its ruthless imperialism and colonial expansionism purely for greed in the disguise of the Holy Bible.
The Muslims could never spread en masse from Medina to China to Spain, as there were not many Arabs to be distributed over all the immense territory. In the beginning, these wars were rather political and there was absolute no desire on the part of the Muslims to impose religion by force, which also is totally prohibited in Islam. If we read history not written by European or Hindu historians, at no time in Islamic civilization was compulsion employed to convert the subjugated peoples. Islamic law recognizes liberty for the non-Muslims to preserve their beliefs and forbids all recourse to compulsion for converting others to Islam. We have just to open pages of history and find out that hundreds of millions of non-Christians were massacred by the European Christians with a Bible in one hand and gunpowder in the other purely for looting the wealth of alien lands of North and South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the Australian continent. On the other hand, Islam was a sigh of relief for the vanquished and they considered it a change for better, protection of their civil rights, freedom to worship their religions as they wished without any compulsion
It would also be wrong to attribute the rapid expansion of Islam to any single cause, especially "the sword". It was the weakness of the Byzantines and Sassanids as a result of their mutual territorial and political conflicts leading to collapse of their empires. It is worth asking a question: How could the Bedouins of Arabia with a few horses and equipment in such a short period of 25 years win over these mighty empires and advanced civilizations like Persia, Roman and Assyrian under the flag of Islam? In the 7th century because of Islams magnanimity and equity in justice to all its citizens of the expanding caliphate, Nestorians and Monophysite Christians of Egypt and Syria embraced Islam because of the prejudicial and racist treatment of the treatment of the Romans. Islam has progressive traditions and Islamic civilization has in the past proved capable of extraordinary feats of tolerance. Under the Muslims, medieval Spain became a haven for diverse religions and sects, and the allegation by some that Islamic civilization is inherently less capable of tolerance is absurd. Magnanimity is very much admired by Muslims and it is considered a sin if we ill-treat or harm an enemy at our mercy; it is our religious and moral duty to protect him from all harm. In Islamic civilization and rules, Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus and other people of various beliefs enjoyed religious freedom and equal rights. This reflected the teachings of the Quran, which is pluralistic scripture and affirmation of others' traditions. As far as the secular view, Ottomans were considered history's longest-lasting major dynasty; their long reign must have had some relation to their ability to rule a multi-faith empire when Europe was hanging different varieties of Christian believers. People of different faiths were never forced to accept Islam and we can see the evidence: in India 85% of the population still practice Hinduism and over 95% of the Europeans are Christian, 18 million Coptic Christian still live in Egypt despite ruled by the Muslims for long periods.
Hindu writers also accuse and claim that the Muslims were the cause of Buddhism's demise in India. It was in fact the Muslims who were saviors of the Buddhists and what remained of Buddhism in India when they landed in the Indus valley in AD 710. Before the advent of the young Muslim commander Mohammed bin Qasim in 710, Sindh was predominately Buddhist under Hindu rulers. Belligerent as ever, Hinduism was engaged at that time in eliminating Buddhism and exterminating any remaining Buddhists in India. While the Buddhists were either massacred, maligned, persecuted and suppressed violently as misguided evil revisionists by the Hindu rulers and fanatical mobs, Qasim arrived at Bhambore, 65 kilometers east of Karachi. Not surprisingly, he found a welcoming populace in the Buddhist community, the Arab Muslims appearing as liberators as they defeated their rulers and oppressors and finally defeating King Dahir. In order to extend the pattern of Muslim administration in newly acquired territory, Qasim allowed the Buddhists and later the Hindus to claim the status of the "people of the Book". Like the Jews and Christians, Buddhists and Hindus were entitled to convert to Islam or to seek protection by the Islamic state. Tolerance of other religions in the Sindh-Multan kingdom was remarkable and free from oppressive features of Hindu rulers. Hindus and Buddhists in millions converted to Islam without compulsion but willingly and with open arms to escape the iniquitous Hindu caste system, its self-indulging and inflicting ethos; and for the Buddhist, it was freedom from Hindus' persecution and vehement violence.
Following this pattern, Islam spread in the subcontinent more as result of Sufi missionary activity than invasions. Many devoted Sufis settled down permanently in the subcontinent, teaching and spreading Islam by precept and example. Even today we see millions upon millions of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and people of other faiths venerating their shrines. By the beginning of the 11th century, the entire Indus Valley from the Hindu Kush mountains to the Arabian Sea was dotted by Sufi shrines, which later began to spill over to the Gangetic valley created by the melting snows of the Himalayas. That was the power of Islam and its message of love, peace, harmony, submission and to worship one Allah and none else.
Bridges between the people of Islam and those who fear Islam must be built and if we can achieve this, it would ease the proselytes to embrace Islam. Since the collapse of Soviet Union and communism, the world has been heading towards greater confrontation between the Muslims and non-Muslim cultures. Islam, its message and its subsequent power were so rapidly accepted by hundred of nations and millions of people across the world that defies all rationale and was phenomenal. During the last one hundred and fifty years nearly sixty thousands of books on Islam have appeared in the west and mostly written by western authors with perfidious intent to sully Islam with their delinquent understanding. The non-Muslim writes and are alien to the path of Islam, its sublime tranquillity, its beauty and unique impression on the soul of a Muslim. Their writing somewhat academic and remote, inherently prejudice with an attitude of arrogant but ignorant superiority when in fact they can never grasp the beautiful essence of Islam, which it creates for a believer. Islam envisages religion as not just a part of life but as the whole of it. In fact, aI-Islam or al-din sees itself as life itself and it incorporates what we do, what we make, what we think, what we feel as well as address the question of where we come from and where we are going.
Westerners lack of knowledge about Islam emanates from ignorance and being ignorant is no excuse for anyone to sully Islam for the sake of perfidious mentality and evil intent to misrepresent it. If an evil-doer brings you a piece of news, inquire first into its truth, lest you should wrong others unwittingly and repent of what you have done. No Muslim army went into Malaysia, Maldives, Indonesia, Bali, Philippines and SE coast of China but it was the dynamism of Islam, which began spreading rapidly to all corners of the globe, and was accepted by the locals with open arms and hearts. Plunder and economic gain are baseless and mendacious accusations levied against Islams spreading so rapidly to all corners of the earth and it is a repugnant attempt to put Islamic civilization on the same pedestal as the barbaric and lewd Christendom with its heinous record of expansion purely for greed in the disguise of white skin Christianity of whit mans god of Bible.
The Qur'an, in fact, directly encourages pluralism in the Ayat 5:48. It clearly states that every people have their own law and a way i.e. every nation is unique in its way of life, its rules etc. It also says that if Allah had pleased, He would have created all human beings a single people but He did not do so in order to test them (whether they can live in harmony with each other despite their differences in laws and way of life). Thus it is clear assertion of pluralism. I am hopeful and certain that the majority of Indian Hindus will in my life time embrace Islam with big smiles on their faces and arms wide open. Ameen
The Muslims could never spread en masse from Medina to China to Spain, as there were not many Arabs to be distributed over all the immense territory. In the beginning, these wars were rather political and there was absolute no desire on the part of the Muslims to impose religion by force, which also is totally prohibited in Islam. If we read history not written by European or Hindu historians, at no time in Islamic civilization was compulsion employed to convert the subjugated peoples. Islamic law recognizes liberty for the non-Muslims to preserve their beliefs and forbids all recourse to compulsion for converting others to Islam. We have just to open pages of history and find out that hundreds of millions of non-Christians were massacred by the European Christians with a Bible in one hand and gunpowder in the other purely for looting the wealth of alien lands of North and South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the Australian continent. On the other hand, Islam was a sigh of relief for the vanquished and they considered it a change for better, protection of their civil rights, freedom to worship their religions as they wished without any compulsion
It would also be wrong to attribute the rapid expansion of Islam to any single cause, especially "the sword". It was the weakness of the Byzantines and Sassanids as a result of their mutual territorial and political conflicts leading to collapse of their empires. It is worth asking a question: How could the Bedouins of Arabia with a few horses and equipment in such a short period of 25 years win over these mighty empires and advanced civilizations like Persia, Roman and Assyrian under the flag of Islam? In the 7th century because of Islams magnanimity and equity in justice to all its citizens of the expanding caliphate, Nestorians and Monophysite Christians of Egypt and Syria embraced Islam because of the prejudicial and racist treatment of the treatment of the Romans. Islam has progressive traditions and Islamic civilization has in the past proved capable of extraordinary feats of tolerance. Under the Muslims, medieval Spain became a haven for diverse religions and sects, and the allegation by some that Islamic civilization is inherently less capable of tolerance is absurd. Magnanimity is very much admired by Muslims and it is considered a sin if we ill-treat or harm an enemy at our mercy; it is our religious and moral duty to protect him from all harm. In Islamic civilization and rules, Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus and other people of various beliefs enjoyed religious freedom and equal rights. This reflected the teachings of the Quran, which is pluralistic scripture and affirmation of others' traditions. As far as the secular view, Ottomans were considered history's longest-lasting major dynasty; their long reign must have had some relation to their ability to rule a multi-faith empire when Europe was hanging different varieties of Christian believers. People of different faiths were never forced to accept Islam and we can see the evidence: in India 85% of the population still practice Hinduism and over 95% of the Europeans are Christian, 18 million Coptic Christian still live in Egypt despite ruled by the Muslims for long periods.
Hindu writers also accuse and claim that the Muslims were the cause of Buddhism's demise in India. It was in fact the Muslims who were saviors of the Buddhists and what remained of Buddhism in India when they landed in the Indus valley in AD 710. Before the advent of the young Muslim commander Mohammed bin Qasim in 710, Sindh was predominately Buddhist under Hindu rulers. Belligerent as ever, Hinduism was engaged at that time in eliminating Buddhism and exterminating any remaining Buddhists in India. While the Buddhists were either massacred, maligned, persecuted and suppressed violently as misguided evil revisionists by the Hindu rulers and fanatical mobs, Qasim arrived at Bhambore, 65 kilometers east of Karachi. Not surprisingly, he found a welcoming populace in the Buddhist community, the Arab Muslims appearing as liberators as they defeated their rulers and oppressors and finally defeating King Dahir. In order to extend the pattern of Muslim administration in newly acquired territory, Qasim allowed the Buddhists and later the Hindus to claim the status of the "people of the Book". Like the Jews and Christians, Buddhists and Hindus were entitled to convert to Islam or to seek protection by the Islamic state. Tolerance of other religions in the Sindh-Multan kingdom was remarkable and free from oppressive features of Hindu rulers. Hindus and Buddhists in millions converted to Islam without compulsion but willingly and with open arms to escape the iniquitous Hindu caste system, its self-indulging and inflicting ethos; and for the Buddhist, it was freedom from Hindus' persecution and vehement violence.
Following this pattern, Islam spread in the subcontinent more as result of Sufi missionary activity than invasions. Many devoted Sufis settled down permanently in the subcontinent, teaching and spreading Islam by precept and example. Even today we see millions upon millions of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and people of other faiths venerating their shrines. By the beginning of the 11th century, the entire Indus Valley from the Hindu Kush mountains to the Arabian Sea was dotted by Sufi shrines, which later began to spill over to the Gangetic valley created by the melting snows of the Himalayas. That was the power of Islam and its message of love, peace, harmony, submission and to worship one Allah and none else.
Bridges between the people of Islam and those who fear Islam must be built and if we can achieve this, it would ease the proselytes to embrace Islam. Since the collapse of Soviet Union and communism, the world has been heading towards greater confrontation between the Muslims and non-Muslim cultures. Islam, its message and its subsequent power were so rapidly accepted by hundred of nations and millions of people across the world that defies all rationale and was phenomenal. During the last one hundred and fifty years nearly sixty thousands of books on Islam have appeared in the west and mostly written by western authors with perfidious intent to sully Islam with their delinquent understanding. The non-Muslim writes and are alien to the path of Islam, its sublime tranquillity, its beauty and unique impression on the soul of a Muslim. Their writing somewhat academic and remote, inherently prejudice with an attitude of arrogant but ignorant superiority when in fact they can never grasp the beautiful essence of Islam, which it creates for a believer. Islam envisages religion as not just a part of life but as the whole of it. In fact, aI-Islam or al-din sees itself as life itself and it incorporates what we do, what we make, what we think, what we feel as well as address the question of where we come from and where we are going.
Westerners lack of knowledge about Islam emanates from ignorance and being ignorant is no excuse for anyone to sully Islam for the sake of perfidious mentality and evil intent to misrepresent it. If an evil-doer brings you a piece of news, inquire first into its truth, lest you should wrong others unwittingly and repent of what you have done. No Muslim army went into Malaysia, Maldives, Indonesia, Bali, Philippines and SE coast of China but it was the dynamism of Islam, which began spreading rapidly to all corners of the globe, and was accepted by the locals with open arms and hearts. Plunder and economic gain are baseless and mendacious accusations levied against Islams spreading so rapidly to all corners of the earth and it is a repugnant attempt to put Islamic civilization on the same pedestal as the barbaric and lewd Christendom with its heinous record of expansion purely for greed in the disguise of white skin Christianity of whit mans god of Bible.
The Qur'an, in fact, directly encourages pluralism in the Ayat 5:48. It clearly states that every people have their own law and a way i.e. every nation is unique in its way of life, its rules etc. It also says that if Allah had pleased, He would have created all human beings a single people but He did not do so in order to test them (whether they can live in harmony with each other despite their differences in laws and way of life). Thus it is clear assertion of pluralism. I am hopeful and certain that the majority of Indian Hindus will in my life time embrace Islam with big smiles on their faces and arms wide open. Ameen
