بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
Extremists and militant groups have given Islam a bad name and people that have no knowledge of the religion believe that it is inherently violent – “spread by the sword” as many have have quoted from their own beliefs.
If we look at the history of the true Islam at the time of our prophet (ﷺ) we see many examples of how Islam was spread. Compulsion in religion itself is prohibited looking at what Allah mentioned in the Qur’an:
“There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion. The right course has become clear from the wrong. So whoever disbelieves in Taghut and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.” 2:256
This ayah is very clear. Nobody can be forced to believe or forced to follow the way of Islam – it will always be a choice. There is no authentic narration in the history of the prophet’s (ﷺ) life that mentions anyone being forced to believe.
A further example of Islamic peace is the day the prophet (ﷺ) returned triumphant to Makkah after being cruelly driven out years earlier. The people were forgiven for their prosecution of the Muslims and set free. Yet we see militant groups in our time murdering innocent people labelling it Islam. Those people have nothing to do with our religion and shall be punished accordingly in the hereafter as Allah mentioned in His book:
“Whoever kills an innocent soul it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind. And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.” 5:32
Branching from this Qur’anic quote is another misconception some non-Muslims like to use against Islam claiming that “innocent” here applies to only to believers of the religion. We must understand that the Qur’an is very specific in its wording. Allah here mentions “nafs” meaning “soul” which refers to all souls not merely a Muslim. He could have easily replaced the word with “mu’min” referring only to the believers but He specifically mentioned soul.
For those non-Muslims labelling Muslims as violent, here is an interesting clip to watch:
The facts speak for themselves.
Allah knows best.