Page 190 - Demo

begun. Moreover, it was on this account that the preacher186inquires, “Who has informed you to flee from the coming wrath?” They were warned and exhorted to bear good fruits and good harvest by repentance and belief in the true Messengers of God, especially in the Rasūl Allah, who was the true and the last powerfulCommander.4. The Jews and the Christians have always charged Muhammad(pbuh)ofhavingestablishedthe religionofIslam by force, coercion, and the sword. The Muslim modernists have always tried to refute this charge. However, this does not mean to say that Muhammad (pbuh) never wielded the sword. He had to use it to preserve the name of God. Every patience has limits and every favour has an end. It is not that Allah’s patience or favour is finite; with Him, all is settled, defined and fixed. The chance and the time graciously granted by Allah to the Jews, to the Arabs, and to the Gentiles lasted for more than four thousand years. It was only after the expiry of this period that Allah sends His beloved Muhammad (pbuh) with power and sword, with fire and spirit, to deal with the wicked unbelievers. With the ungrateful children ofAbraham (pbtuhem) -both the Ishmaelites and the Israelites- and to deal with thepower of the Devil, once for all.The whole of the Old Testament is a tale of theocracy and of idolatry. Now and then a little sparkle of Islam that is, the religion of Allah- glittered in Jerusalem and in Makkah; but it was always persecuted by the power of the Devil. The four diabolical Beasts had to come and trample under their feet the handful of believers in Allah. Then comes Muhammad (pbuh) to crush and kill the Venemous Serpent and to give him the opprobrious title of “Iblīs”-the “Bruised” Satan. Certainly Muhammad (pbuh) was a fighting Prophet, but the object of that fighting was victory not vengeance, defeat ofthe enemy and not his extermination, and,