C. G. Pfander, D. D

The revolt of the tribes after Muhammad's death is called by Muslim historians an apostasy. It was not therefore a mere refusal to pay the zakat, though that was a serious offence against Islam and the injunctions of the religious law of the Qur'&n. Ibn Athir, for instance, says: "The¹ Arabs apostatized ^Xt,*)» whether common or noble, of every tribe, and hypocrisy became manifest and rejoiced. The Jews and the Christians refused (submission), and the Muslims remained like sheep in the rainy night because of the loss of their Prophet and their small numbers and the multitude of their enemies." The circumstances were so desperate that Abil Bakr was repeatedly urged to detain the army then assembled near Medinah under Usamah ibn Zaid for the conquest of Syria. But he refused to disobey Muhammad's last wish by doing so. Ab£l Bakr subdued the tribes, and brought them back to Islam " by ² promises and threats", and still more by

1. 
   Ibn Athir, vol. ii, p. 127: compare A1 Kindi, pp. 65, 66, and Rauzatus Sa/a, vol. ii, pp. 224-231.
   

745. 
     Rauzalu's Safd, vol. ii, p. 231.
     
746. 
     force of arms. This is admitted by As Suydti, among others, who says : " When¹ the Arabs apostatized, Aba Bakr and his companions waged a Jihdd against them, until he brought them back to Isl&m."
     
747. 
     There now began the spread of Isldm beyond the borders of Arabia. We must inquire how this took place, by whose command, what methods were employed to convince men that Muhammad was the Apostle of God and the Seal of the Prophets, in what spirit the conversion of the world was undertaken, and by what arguments the majority of the people of Syria, Egypt, and Persia were led to embrace the new Religion so effectively brought to their notice.
     
748. 
     In despatching the army to Syria after Muhammad's death, AbA Bakr said : " Know² that the Apostle of God had resolved to send his force to Syria : and God took him to Himself. . . . And I verily purpose to direct the faces of the heroes of the Muslims towards Syria, . . . for the Apostle of God announced that to me before his death, and said, ' The Earth has been Divinely decreed to me, therefore have I seen its eastern and its western parts : and what of it has been Divinely decreed to me shall come into the possession of my people.'" Abti Bakr also wrote a letter and sent a copy of it to Yaman and Mecca, urging the people to undertake this Jihad\ This latter title is repeatedly given to the war by the Kitibu'l Waqidi, and the same term is used of it in 'Umar's letter to Ibn 'Ubaidah, quoted in that author's FutHhtCl 'Ajam, p. 2.
     
749. 
     To the army starting for Syria under the command of Yazid ibn Abt Sufy&n, AbG Bakr gave the commission ³ mentioned in Chapter 11 of the Third Part of
     
750. 
     Tdrikhu'l Khulafd, p. 44, Muhammadi Press, Lahore, a.h. 1304. A fuller account is given in the same work, pp. 51, 52.
     
751. 
     * KStibu'l Waqidi, Futuhu'sh Shdm, vol. i, p. 3 : printed at Safdari Press, Bombay, a.h. 1298.
     
752. 
     ' Ibid., p. 5, of the edition printed at Kanpur in a.h. 1287; see also As Suyfiti, Tdrikhu'l Khulafd, p. 66.
     
753. 
     our present Treatise. It agrees very closely with what Muhammad had said when sending Zaid ibn H&rithah, his adopted son, on a similar expedition before the march to Tabftk :." Slay ¹ your enemies and God's enemies that are in Syria. There you will find a class of men who live retired in cells. Give them no trouble. And slay not woman and boy and suckling; cut not down the date-palms and trees, nor destroy the houses." But this must not be taken to indicate mercy to the women, for they were often reserved for a fate far worse than death. We have already seen that Muhammad had caused women who had offended him to be put to death in both Medinah and Mecca. Nor were the Muslims more merciful to women after his death. As Suyfttl tells ² us of the treatment suffered by two women of the Arabs, one of whom had abused Muhammad and the other had lampooned the Muslims. In each case the woman's hand was cut off and one of her front teeth knocked out. Abti Bakr, hearing of this, wrote to say that, if he had been consulted, he would have ordered the former of the two to be put to death.
     
754. 
     The spirit in which the conversion of the neighbouring countries was undertaken is clearly shown in the following lines, ascribed to 'Ali ibn Abi Tilib :—
     
755. 
     " Our * flowers are the sword and the dagger: ..
     
756. 
     Narcissus and myrtle are nought.'
     
757. 
     Our drink is the blood of our foeman;
     
758. 
     Our goblet his skull, when we've fought."
     
759. 
     This is in accord with the teaching of the Qur'in, as far as putting opponents to death is concerned, for in SClrah v. 27, it is written : " Verily the recompense
     
760. 
     ¹ Rautaius Sa/d, vol. ii, p. 164. Compare Rev. ix. 4.
     
761. 
     * Tdrikhu'l Kkula/d, p. 67.
     
762. 
     ^^jkyJI ^Jc oil _ LiW; ^»¿«Jlj t. t.J ...II ¹ (j-j^J) * » m. , i. I.J. JU-cl ^ I l-.i^S'
     

763. 
     ('Alt's Dfwdn, p. 52.) of those who wage war against God and His Apostle and run after evil in the land is that they be slain or crucified, or that their hands and their feet be cut off on opposite sides, or that they be banished from the land." In SOrah ix. we find it enacted that, after the end of the four sacred months of a. h. i i, no agreement with the Polytheists was to be regarded as binding (vers. 1-4). " When the sacred months are past, then slay the Polytheists wherever ye find them, and seize them and besiege them and lie in ambush for them in every ambuscade" (ver. 5). Only on condition of their paying zakat and observing the fixed times of prayer and repenting, that is, becoming Muslims, were they to be spared. As for the " People of the Book", we find their sentence in the same Surah, for to the Muslims is given the command: "Fight¹ ye against those who believe not in God nor in the Last Day, nor forbid what God and His Apostle have forbidden, nor profess the true religion, from among those who have been brought the Book, until they give the jizyah-tax out of hand and be brought low " (or " are little"). This command is still iftcumbent upon Muslims, whose duty it still is to compel Jews and Christians either to become Muslims or to be reduced to a condition worse than that of slaves. As we shall now show, the early Muslims recognized this obligation, and therefore conquered Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Persia, and other lands. Doubtless* the chief reason with many of them for engaging in such conquests was the love of war and the desire of plunder and female slaves: but all this was sanctioned and encouraged by their religion. Hence the professed object of each war was the spread of I slim, and thus it was proclaimed a Jih&d. We have seen that Abti Bakr called the invasion of Syria by this name. The Khalifah 'Umar, in the letter⁸ in which he ordered 'Ayiz ibnu'l Ghanam to march to the conquest of Diir Bakr and
     
764. 
     ¹ Stirah ix. 29.
     
765. 
     ' Kltibu'l WSqidi, Futdhul 'Ajam, p. 2.
     
766. 
     of Rabi ah in Firs, speaks of this war also as a Jihdd. Historians openly apply the same title to each of these wars of conquest. And the terms offered to the inhabitants of these countries, being those laid down in SGrah ix. 29, show that the Muslim generals fully recognized this. A few examples will suffice to prove this fact.
     
767. 
     Abti 'Ubaidah wrote thus to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, when it was besieged by the Muslim army : "If¹ you conform to our religion, or agree to pay the jizyah-tax., I shall withdraw from the skirt of your reputation the hand of interference. But if not, I shall appoint against you a people, in whose opinion it is a more acceptable thing to be slain for their faith than it is among you to eat the flesh of the hog and to drink wine." Similarly the Kitibu'l Wiqidl² informs us that Yazid was sent with the following message to the people of Jerusalem : " What say ye in answer to the invitation to I slim and the Truth and the Creed of Simplicity ? And it is the creed, ' There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Apostle of God': that our Lord may forgive you those of your offences which are past, and that ye may obviate the shedding of your blood. And, if ye refuse and do not assent unto us, then make terms of peace for your town, as others than you have done of those who were greater than you in number and stronger than you. And if ye reject these two conditions, perdition is due to you, and may your going be to Hell-fire ! " The interpreter explained all this simply and quite correctly by saying, " This chieftain says so and so, and he invites you to one of these three terms, either entrance into Isl&m, or the payment of the jizya.k-ta.yL, or the sword." The Christians replied : "We shall not turn back from the religion of glory and of acceptance ; and if we be slain, it will be easier for us than that."
     
768. 
     ¹ Rauzatu's Sa/d, vol. ii, p. 241.
     
769. 
     ' Futdhush Shdm, vol. i, p. 340, printed at Safdari Press, Bombay, a.h. 1298.
     
770. 
     Similarly, at the beginning of his account of the invasion of Armenia, the Kátibu'l Wáqidl tells us¹that messengers were sent by the Arabs to the Armenian Bústiús, governor of Yadlis, to say: " We have been sent to you as envoys to summon you to testify that there is no god but God alone ; He has no Partner: and that Muhammad is His Servant and His Apostle : or that ye should enter into that into which the men have entered, and that ye should pay the fizyah-tax out of hand, and be brought low."
     
771. 
     When Sa'd ibn Abl Waqqás sent Mughairah ibn Shaibah to Yezdijird's court at Madá' in, the message which he delivered in the Khalifah's name to the astonished King of Persia was this : " We² invite thee to the acceptance of the imperishable Law. If thou dost accept, no one shall set foot within thy realm without permission, nor demand a copper coin except the zakát³ and the Fifth.³ And if grace become not thy companion,⁴ do thou become subject to the jizyah-tax. Otherwise, prepare for war." Another account given by the same historian⁸ runs thus : " If thou refusest to accept the faith and to pay the zakcit and the Fifth, give the jizyah-tax, and in that state thou shalt be brought low." Yezdijird asked the meaning of " low " (or " little "—j¿\J). Mughairah replied : " * Low' means this, that, when thou payest the jizyah-tax, thou remainest standing on foot, and a scourge is held over thine head."
     
772. 
     Somewhat similarly the Kátibu'l Wáqidi relates® that Abú Músa was sent by Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqás to the Persian general Rustam before the battle of Qádisiyyah to say: "We summon you to bear witness : and, if ye refuse Islám, then pay the jizyah-tax; and, if ye refuse, then the sword is a very reliable witness."
     

773. 
     It is evident that, in thus compelling Christians and Zoroastrians to choose between (i) becoming Muslims against their will, (2) paying; the jizyah-tax and being bitterly humiliated, and (3) being put to "death, the Arab generals were obeying the Qur'ln (Stirah ix. 29). In fact, they might have treated the Zoroastrians in the sternef way mentioned in Stirah ix. 5, had they not considered them entitled to rank as " People of the Book", though doubtless that title properly belonged only to the Jews and the Christians.
     
774. 
     Occasionally when people were thus forced to accept Isllm at the point of the sword, they rejected it when they thought themselves strong enough to do so. Thus in a. h. 30 we are told that the Khallfah 'Uthm&n sent 'Uthmln ibn Abt'l 'A§, or Sa'd his brother (for accounts differ) against Yezdijird, who was advancing to the assistance of the people of Istakhr [Persepolis], of whom we learn that they had previously " yielded¹ obedience to the chiefs of Isllm ", but had now " turned aside from the right way ".
     
775. 
     But to abandon I slim when proved not to be from God is a dangerous thing. By the law of the Qur'an the punishment is^s death; for in Surlh ii. 214 it is enacted that " Whosoever shall apostatize from his religion, let him die for it, and he is an infidel". If a man outwardly professes Isllm but inwardly disbelieves, his condition is that of a hypocrite, and, according to the Qur'ln, the hypocrites will be in the lowest⁸ abyss of Hell. Yet the chief duty of Muslims in the early days of I slim was to force people by the sword to become Muslims outwardly, that is, to become hypocrites. Worldly temptations were also held out to men as inducements to accept I slim in appearance, and in these two ways it spread. Ignorance was then employed to safeguard men's faith. This is clear from the Khalifah 'Umar's commands regarding the libraries captured in conquered lands. Regarding the great library at Alexandria, Abtl'l Faraj tells us that, when 'Amr ibnu'l 'As conquered Egypt in a.d. 640, 'Umar was asked whether the library was to be preserved or not. In reply he said : " If these writings of the Greeks agree with the Book of God " (the Qur'in), " they are useless, and need not be preserved. If they disagree with it, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed." Similarly, as we are informed in the Kashfu'z Zuntln, Sa'd ibn AbCl Waqqis, having conquered Persia, wrote to ask the same Khalifah what he should do with the libraries of Persia. The reply was : " Cast them into the rivers. For, if in these books there is guidance, then we have still better guidance in the Book of God. If, on the contrary, there is in them that which will lead us astray, then may God protect us from them." In each case the order was obeyed. Only in the time of the Mu'tazilah has any freedom of thought and inquiry been permitted in any Muslim land.
     
776. 
     The persecutions inflicted on those who refused to accept I slim in Persia compelled many of the Zoroastrians. to flee to India, where their descendants now form a large and industrious trading community in Bombay. They found it far more tolerable to live amid the idolatrous Hindtis than to endure the ignominy and oppression which they had to suffer from the Muslims in their own land. Those who live or have travelled in Muslim lands well know how miserable is the condition of the Dkimmts (whether Jews, Christians, or Zoroastrians) there. They cannot even give evidence in a court of justice, they cannot defend themselves from wrong and violence, they are liable at any moment to be massacred by - the Muslims,— as at Adana recently, in Armenia and in Bulgaria only a few years ago. For many generations the children of Christians were often taken away by force, made Muslims by violence, and compelled to serve as Janissaries, until the whole of the Janissaries were disbanded one day by the Sultan's command.
     
777. 
     When the reviser of these pages was in Persia, near Isfahan, he had a Muslim acquaintance there who dwelt in a neighbouring village. This Persian said to him : " When I was a little boy, some fifty years ago, my parents and I and all the people in our village were Zoroastrians. One day the chief Mujtahid of the city of Isfahan issued a decree, commanding us all to embrace Isl&m. We petitioned the Prince-Governor of the province, we refused to change our religion, we offered bribes to leading Muslim nobles and 'Ulami. They took our money, but did not help us at all. The Mujtahid gave us until midday on the following Friday to be converted, declaring that we should all be put to death if we did not at that time at latest become Muslims. That morning all the lowest ruffians from the city surrounded our village, each with some deadly weapon in his hand, awaiting the appointed hour to permit him to begin the work of plunder and murder. We waited in vain until it was almost midday, hoping that our enemy would relent. As he did not, just before noon we all accepted I slim, and thus saved our lives."
     
778. 
     In the same country until quite recently there was still in force the law that, if any single member of a Christian family, even the youngest son, could be induced to embrace I slim, all the property of the family was at once handed over to him ; his father, mother, brothers and sisters being turned out of their home and left destitute. When we consider the cruelty and oppression which for about 1,300 years has been the lot of Dhimmis in all Muslim lands, the marvel is that any of them have been able to resist the inducements and the pressure brought upon them to become hypocrites.
     

779. 
     We have now finished our examination of Islam's claims to be God's finai Revelation of His Will. When we consider the Criteria laid down in the Introduction, and inquire how far Islâm satisfies them, the answer is not difficult to give. To us it seems that the only one of these Criteria which Islâm can in any degree claim to satisfy is the fourth. Christianity, on the other hand, satisfies them all. The conclusion is obvious.
     

780. 
     CHAPTER VIII
     
781. 
     CONCLUSION
     
782. 
     Now, respected reader, we have together examined all the asserted proofs of the truth of Islam, and we have inquired into Muhammad's claim to be the Lord of the Apostles and the Seal of the Prophets. It lies with you to decide for yourself, in the sight of God who knoweth men's hearts, whether this claim is true or false. May God Most Merciful guide you to a right decision!
     
783. 
     You have to choose between the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and Muhammad ibn 'Abdu'll&h : between Him who went about doing good and him who is called the Prophet with the Sword : between Him who said, "Love¹ your enemies," and him who said, " Slay ² your enemies and the enemies of God " : between Him who prayed ³ for His murderers, and him who caused those who lampooned him to be murdered. You are doubtless aware of what kind were Christ's life and character, and you know that these form one of the most decisive of the proofs of the truth of His claims. " The Sun has come as the proof of the Sun : if thou seekest the proof of Him, turn not thy face from Him." On the other hand, you have seen what Muslim writers tell us of the life and character of Muhammad. You must now judge for yourself whether these were so very far superior to Christ's that you are justified in rejecting Christ, and entrusting your eternal salvation to Muhammad instead of to Him. You are aware that the Bible, the Word of God (¿if teaches us that, in accordance with
     
784. 
     ¹ Matt. v. 44. ² Rauzatus Safd, vol. ii, p. 164.
     
785. 
     ³ Luke xxiii. 34.