Persia and Rome were thus the aggressors, and the Muslims, in sheer self-defence, came into conflict with those mighty empires. The idea of spreading Islām by the sword was as far away from their minds as it was from that of the great Master whom they followed. Thus even Muir admits that, as late as the conquest of Mesopotamia by ‘Umar, the Muslims were strangers to the idea of making converts to Islām by means of the sword: “The thought of a world-wide mission was yet in embryo; obligation to enforce Islām by a universal Crusade had not yet dawned upon the Muslim mind.”6 This remark relates to the year 16 of Hijrah, when more than half the battles of the early Caliphate had already been fought. According to Muir, even the conquest of the whole of Persia was a measure of self-defence, and not of aggression, on the part of the Muslims: “The truth began to dawn on ‘Omar that necessity was laid upon him to withdraw the ban against advance. In self-defence, nothing was left but to crush the Chosroes and take entire possession of his realm.”7 And if the wars with the Persian and Roman empires were begun and carried on for five years without any idea of the propagation of Islām by arms, surely there was no occasion for the idea to creep in at a subsequent stage.

Ḥadīth on the object of war

As already stated, Ḥadīth cannot go against the Holy Quraqsx ’ān. Being only an explanation of the Holy Book, it must be rejected if it contains anything against the plain teachings of the Holy Qur’ān. Yet Macdonald, in the Encyclopaedia of Islam,8 advances a very strange view. The Holy Qur’ān, he admits, does not sanction unprovoked war against non-Muslims. Even the Holy Prophet had no idea that his teachings would develop into such a position. Yet Tradition, he says, is explicit on the point: “Whether Muḥammad himself recognized that his position implied steady and unprovoked war against the unbelieving world until it was subdued to Islam may be in doubt. Traditions are explicit on the point … Still, the story of his writing to the powers around him shows that such a universal position was implicit in his mind.” Now Ḥadīth is nothing but a collection of what the Holy Prophet said or did. How could it be then that a thing of which the Holy Prophet had no idea, as admitted in the above