unbelieving nations and countries, whether they were attacked or not, an idea quite foreign to the Holy Qur’ān.
The propagation of Islām is no doubt a religious duty of every true Muslim, who must follow the example of the Holy Prophet, but “the spread of Islām by force”, is a thing of which no trace can be found in the Holy Qur’ān. On the other hand, the Holy Book lays down the opposite doctrine in clear words. “There is no compulsion in religion”, and the reason is added: “The right way is clearly distinct from error” (2:256). This verse was revealed after the permission for war had been given, and it is therefore certain that the permission to fight has no connection with the preaching of religion. That the Holy Qur’ān never taught such a doctrine, nor did the Holy Prophet ever think of it, is a fact which is now being gradually appreciated by the Western mind. After beginning his article on Djihād with the statement that “the spread of Islām by arms is a religious duty upon Muslims in general”, D.B. Macdonald, the writer of the article in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, in a way questions the correctness of his own allegation, by adding that there is nothing in the Holy Qur’ān to corroborate it, and that the idea was not present even to the mind of the Holy Prophet :
“In the Meccan Suras of the Kur’an patience under attack is taught; no other attitude was possible. But at Medīna the right to repel attack appears, and gradually it became a prescribed duty to fight against and subdue the hostile Meccans. 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;2 but the Kur’anic passages speak always of the unbelievers who are to be subdued as dangerous or faithless.”
Here is a clear confession that the Holy Qur’ān does not enjoin the waging of war against all unbelievers so as to subdue them to Islām, nor was the idea present to the mind of the Holy Prophet. The logical consequence of this confession is that genuine ḥadīth cannot inculcate such a doctrine, for Ḥadīth reports the saying of the Holy
2 It will be shown later on that even Ḥadīth does not teach propagation of Islām by force.