word of Allāh. In the Holy Qur’ān these words are used on the occasion of the Holy Prophet’s flight to Madīnah. The Holy Prophet’s safe flight is spoken of as making the word of the disbelievers lowest, and the word of Allāh highest: “… So (Allāh) … made lowest the word of those who disbelieved. And the word of Allāh, that is the uppermost” (9:40).

There are many ḥadīth which speak of the excellence of jihād or of the excellence of fighting, and these are sometimes misconstrued, as showing that a Muslim must always be fighting with other people. It is in a ḥadīth that a Muslim is defined as being “one from whose hand and tongue Muslims — or, according to another account, people — are secure” (Bu. 2:4: FB. I, p. 51); and a Muslim literally means “one who has entered into peace”. According to another ḥadīth, a mu’min (believer) is “one from whom people are secure concerning their lives and their properties” (MM. I -ii). But war is undoubtedly a necessity of life, and there are times when fighting becomes the highest of duties. Fighting in the cause of justice, fighting to help the oppressed, fighting in self-defence, fighting for national existence are all truly the highest and noblest of deeds, because in all these cases a man lays down his life in the cause of truth and justice, and that is, no doubt, the highest sacrifice that a man can make. Fighting, in itself, is neither good nor bad; it is the occasion which makes it either the best of deeds or the worst of them.

The question is simply this, What was the object for which the Holy Prophet fought? There is not the least doubt about it, as the Holy Qur’ān is clear on the point. “Permission (to fight) is given to those on whom war is made, because they are oppressed” (22:39): “And if Allāh did not repel some people by others, cloisters and churches and synagogues and mosques in which Allāh’s name is much remembered, would have been pulled down” (22:40); “And what reason have you not to fight in the way of Allāh, and of the weak among the men and the women and the children who say, Our Lord, take us out of this town, whose people are oppressors, and grant us from Thee a friend and grant us from Thee a helper” (4:75); “Will you not fight a people who broke their oaths and aimed at the expulsion of the Messenger, and they attacked you first” (9:13); and so on. If then there are ḥadīth