Daybreak in Turkey: Second EditionBarton, James L. (James Levi)
History
Daybreak in Turkey: Second Edition
Barton, James L. (James Levi)
Turkey
Only last year the Arabic paper, Es-Zahir, published in
Egypt, said: “Has the time not come yet when uniting the
suppressed wailings of India with our own groans and
sighs in Egypt, we should say to each other, Come, let
us be one, following the divine words, ‘Victory belongs
to the united forces’? Certainly the time has come when
we, India and Egypt, should cut and tear asunder the ties
of the yoke imposed on us by the English.” On the other
hand, Mohammed Husain, the editor of a paper at Lahore,
wrote a treatise on Jihad (1893), stating: “The present
treatise on the question of Jihad has been compiled for
two reasons. My first object is that the Mohammedans,
ignorant of the texts bearing on Jihad and the conditions
of Islam, may become acquainted with them, and that they
may not labor under the misapprehension that it is their
religious duty to wage war against another people solely
because that people is opposed to Islam. Thus they, by
ascertaining the fixed conditions and texts, may be saved
forever from rebellion, and may not sacrifice their lives
and property fruitlessly nor unjustly shed the blood of
others. My second object is that non-Mohammedans and
the government under whose protection the Mohammedans
live, may not suspect Mohammedans of thinking that it is
lawful for us to fight against non-Mohammedans, or that
it is our duty to interfere with the life and property of
others, or that we are bound to convert others forcibly to
Mohammedanism, or to spread Islam by means of the sword.”
So the question of “religion and the sword” is still an
open one among Moslems. It must needs be so long as they
obey the Koran and tradition, for Mohammed said, “He
who dies and has not fought for the religion of Islam,
nor has even said in his heart, ‘Would to God I were a
champion that could die in the road of God,’ is even as
a hypocrite.” And again, still more forcibly, “The fire
of hell shall not touch the legs of him who is covered
with the dust of battle in the road of God.” In spite
of cruelty, bloodshed, dissension and deceit, the story
of the Moslem conquest with the sword of Jihad is full
of heroism and inspiration.
—S. M. ZWEMER, F. R. G. S. in “Islam.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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