THE PREACHING OF ISLAM
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION
Ever since Professor Max Müller
delivered his lecture in Westminster Abbey, on the day of intercession for
missions, in December, 1873, it has been a literary commonplace, that the six
great religions of the world may be divided into missionary and non-missionary;
under the latter head fall Judaism, Brahmanism and Zoroastrianism, and under
the former Buddhism, Christianity and Islam; and he well defined what the
term,—a missionary religion,—should be taken to mean, viz. one " in which
the spreading of the truth and the conversion of unbelievers are raised to the
rank of a sacred duty by the founder or his immediate successors. ... It is the
spirit of truth in the hearts of believers which cannot rest, unless it
manifests itself in thought, word and deed, which is not satisfied till it has
carried its message to every human soul, till what it believes to be the truth
is accepted as the truth by all members of the human family.(1)
It is such a zeal for the truth of
their religion that has inspired the Muhammadans to carry with them the message
of Islam to the people of every land into which they penetrate, and that
justly claims for their religion a place among those we term missionary. It is
the history of the birth of this missionary zeal, its inspiring forces and the
modes of its activity that forms the subject of the following pages. The 200
millions of Muhammadans scattered over the world at the present day are
evidences of its workings through the length of thirteen centuries.
The
doctrines of this faith were first proclaimed to the people
of Arabia in the seventh century, by a prophet under whose
banner their scattered tribes became a nation; and filled
with the pulsations of this new national life, and with a
fervour and enthusiasm that imparted an almost invincible strength
to their armies, they poured forth over three continents to
conquer and subdue. Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa and Persia were the first
to fall before them, and pressing westward
to Spain and eastward beyond the
Indus, the followers of the Prophet found themselves, one hundred years after
his death, masters of an empire greater
than that of Rome at the zenith of its power.
Although
in after years this great empire was split up and the political
power of Islam diminished, still its spiritual conquests went on
uninterruptedly. When the Mongol hordes sacked Baghdād (a.d. 1258) and drowned in blood
the faded glory of the ‘Abbāsid
dynasty,—when the Muslims were expelled from Cordova by Ferdinand of Leon and Castile (a.d. 1236), and Granada, the last stronghold of Islam in Spain, paid tribute to the
Christian king,—Islam had
just gained a footing in the island of Sumatra and was just about to commence its triumphant
progress through the
islands of the Malay Archipelago. In the hours of its political degradation, Islam has
achieved some of its most brilliant spiritual conquests : on two great
historical occasions,
infidel barbarians have set their feet on the necks of the followers of the Prophet,—the Saljūq Turks in the eleventh and the Mongols in the thirteenth
century,—and in each case the
conquerors have accepted the religion of the conquered. Unaided also by the temporal power, Muslim missionaries have carried their faith into
Central Africa, China and the East
India Islands.
At
the present day the faith of Islam extends from Morocco to
Zanzibar, from Sierra Leone to Siberia and China, from Bosnia
to New Guinea. Outside the limits of strictly Muhammadan
countries and of lands, such as China and Russia, that contain a large
Muhammadan population, there are some few small communities
of the followers of the Prophet, which bear witness to the
faith of Islam in the midst of unbelievers. Such are the
Polish-speaking Muslims of Tatar origin in Lithuania, that inhabit
the districts of Kovno, Vilno and Grodno;(2) the
Dutch-speaking Muslims of Cape Colony; and the Indian coolies that have carried the faith of Islam with them to the West
India Islands and to British and
Dutch Guiana. In recent years, too,
Islam has found adherents in England, in North America, Australia and Japan.
The spread of this faith over so vast a portion of
the globe is due to various causes, social, political and religious :
but among these, one of the most powerful factors at work in
the production of this stupendous result, has been the unremitted labours of
Muslim missionaries, who, with the Prophet
himself as their great ensample, have spent themselves for the conversion of unbelievers.
The duty of missionary work is no after-thought in the
history of Islam, but was enjoined on believers from the beginning,
as may be judged from the following passages in the Qur'ãn,—which
are here quoted in chronological order according to the date
of their being delivered.
"
Summon thou to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and with kindly
warning : dispute with them in the kindest manner, (xvi.
126.)
" They who have inherited the Book after them (i.e.
the Jews and Christians), are in perplexity of doubt concerning
it.
" For this cause summon thou (them to the faith), and walk
uprightly therein as thou hast been bidden, and follow not their
desires : and say : In whatsoever Books God hath sent down do
I believe : I am commanded to decide justly between you :
God is your Lord
and our Lord : we have our works and you have your
works : between us and you let there be no strife : God will make us all one : and to Him shall we return." (xlii. 13-14.)
Similar
injunctions are found also in the Medinite Sūrahs, delivered
at a time when Muhammad was at the head of a large army and at the
height of his power.
"
Say to those who have been given the Book and to the ignorant,
Do you accept Islam ? Then, if they accept Islam, are they
guided aright: but if they turn away, then thy duty is only
preaching; and God's eye is on His servants. (iii. 19.)
"
Thus God clearly showeth you His signs that perchance ye
may be guided;
"
And that there may be from among you a people who invite
to the Good, and enjoin the Just, and forbid the Wrong; and these
are they with whom it shall be well. (iii. 99-100.)
"
To every people have We appointed observances which they
observe. Therefore let them not dispute the matter with thee, but summon them
to thy Lord : Verily thou art guided aright :
“
But if they debate with thee, then say : God best knoweth
what ye do!” (xxii. 66-67.)
The
following passages are taken from what is generally supposed
to be the last Sūrah that was delivered.
"
If any one of those who join gods with God ask an asylum
of thee, grant him an asylum in order that he may hear the word of
God; then let him reach his place of safety." (ix. 6.)
With
regard to the unbelievers who had broken their plighted word, who
" sell the signs of God for a mean price and turn others
aside from His way," and " respect not with a believer
either ties of blood or good faith," ... it
is said :—
"
Yet if they turn to God and observe prayer and give alms, then are they your
brothers in the faith : and We make clear the signs for men of
knowledge." (ix. II)
Thus
from its very inception Islam has been a missionary religion,
both in theory and in practice, for the life of Muḥammad exemplifies
the same teaching, and the Prophet himself
stands at the head of a long series of Muslim missionaries who have won an entrance for their faith into
the hearts of
unbelievers. Moreover it is not in the cruelties of the persecutor or the fury of the fanatic that
we should look for the
evidences of the missionary spirit of Islam, any more than in the exploits of that mythical personage, the Muslim warrior with sword in one
hand and Qur'an in the
other, (3) —but in the quiet, unobtrusive
labours of the preacher
and the trader who have carried their faith into every quarter of the globe. Such peaceful methods of
preaching and persuasion
were not adopted, as some would have us believe, only when political circumstances made force and violence impossible or
impolitic, but were most strictly
enjoined in numerous passages of the Qur'ān, as follows :—
"And
endure what they say with patience, and depart from them with a decorous
departure.
"And
let Me alone with the gainsayers, rich in the pleasures (of this
life); and bear thou with them yet a little while. (lxxiii. io-ii.)
"(My)
sole (work) is preaching from God and His message. (lxxii. 24.)
"Tell
those who have believed to pardon those who hope not for the days of
God in which He purposeth to recompense men according to their
deserts. (xlv. 13.)
"They
who had joined other gods with God say, ‘Had He pleased, neither
we nor our forefathers had worshipped aught but Him; nor had we,
apart from Him, declared anything unlawful.’ Thus acted they
who were before them. Yet is the duty of the apostles other than
plain-spoken preaching? (xvi. 37.)
" Then if they turn their
backs, still thy office is only plain-spoken preaching, (xvi. 84.)
" Dispute ye not, unless in
kindliest sort, with the people of the Book; save with such of them as have
dealt wrongfully (with you) : and say ye, ‘We believe in what has been sent
down to us and hath been sent down to you. Our God and your God is one, and to
Him are we self-surrendered.’ (xxix. 45.)
" But if they turn aside from
thee, yet We have not sent thee to be guardian over them. ‘Tis thine but to
preach. (xlii. 47.)
" But if thy Lord had pleased,
verily all who are in the world would have believed together. Wilt thou then
compel men to become believers ? (x. 99.)
" And we have not sent thee
otherwise than to mankind at large, to announce and to warn." (xxxiv. 27.)
Such precepts are not confined to
the Meccan Sūrahs, but are found in abundance also in those delivered at
Medina, as follows :—
" Let there be no compulsion in religion. (ii. 257.)
" Obey God and obey the apostle; but if ye turn away,
yet is our apostle only charged with
plain-spoken preaching. (lxiv. 12.)
" Obey God and
obey the apostle : but if ye turn back, still the burden of his duty is on him
only, and the burden of your duty rests on you. And if ye obey him, ye shall have guidance
: but plain preaching is all that devolves upon the apostle. (xxiv. 53.)
"Say: O
men! I am only your plain-spoken (open)
warner. (xxii. 48.)
"Verily We have sent thee to be a witness and a herald
of good and a warner,
"That ye may believe on God and on His apostle; and
may assist Him and honour Him, and praise Him morning and evening. (xlviii. 8-9.)
"Thou wilt not cease to discover the treacherous ones
among them, except a few of them. But
forgive them and pass it over. Verily,
God loveth those who act generously."
(v. 16.)
It
is the object of the following pages to show how this ideal
was realised in history and how these principles of missionary
activity were put into practice by the exponents of Islam. And at
the outset the reader should clearly understand that this work
is not intended to be a history of Muhammadan
persecutions but of Muhammadan missions —it does not aim at
chronicling the instances of forced conversions which may be
found scattered up and down the pages of Muhammadan histories.
European writers have taken such care to accentuate these, that there
is no fear of their being forgotten, and they do not strictly
come within the province of a history of missions. In a history of
Christian missions we should naturally expect to hear more
of the labours of St. Liudger and St. Willehad among the
pagan Saxons than of the baptisms that Charlemagne forced
them to undergo at the point of the sword. (4)
The true missionaries of Denmark were St. Ansgar and his successors
rather than King Cnut, who forcibly rooted out paganism from his
dominions. (5) Abbot Gottfried and Bishop
Christian, though less successful in converting the pagan Prussians, were more
truly representative of Christian missionary work than the
Brethren of the Sword and other Crusaders who brought their labours to
completion by means of fire and sword. The
knights of the “Ordo fratrum militiæ
Christi” forced Christianity on the people of Livonia, but it is not to these militant propagandists but
to the monks Meinhard and Theodoric that we should point as being the true missionaries of the Christian faith in this
country. The violent means sometimes
employed by the Jesuit missionaries (6)
cannot derogate from the honour due to St. Francis Xavier and
other preachers of the same order. Nor is Valentyn any the
less the apostle of Amboyna because in 1699 an order was promulgated
to the Rajas of this island that they should have ready a
certain number of pagans
to be baptised, when the pastor came on his rounds.
(7)
In
the history of the Christian church missionary activity is
seen to be intermittent, and an age of apostolic fervour may
be succeeded by a period of apathy and indifference, or
persecution and forced conversion may take the place of the preaching of the Word;
so likewise does the propaganda of Islam in various epochs
of Muhammadan history ebb and flow. But since the zeal of
proselytising is a distinct feature of either faith, its missionary
history may fittingly be singled out as a separate branch of
study, not as excluding other manifestations of the religious life but as concentrating attention on an aspect of it that
has special characteristics of its
own. Thus the annals of propaganda and
persecution may be studied apart from one another, whether in the history of the Christian or the
Muslim church, though in both they
may be at times commingled. For just as the Christian faith has not always been
propagated by the methods adopted in
Viken (the southern part of Norway)
by King Olaf Trygvesson, who either slew
those who refused to accept Christianity, or cut off their hands or feet, or drove them into
banishment, and in this manner spread
the Christian faith throughout the whole
of Viken, (8)—and just as the advice of St. Louis
has not been made a principle of Christian missionary work,— "
When a layman hears the Christian law ill spoken of, he
should not defend that law save with his sword, which he
should thrust into the infidel's belly, as far as it will go," (9)
—so there have been Muslim missionaries who have not been guided in
their propagandist methods by the savage utterance of
Marwān, the last of the ‘Umayyad caliphs : " Whosoever among the people of
Egypt does not enter into my religion and
pray as I pray and follow my tenets, I
will slay and crucify him." (10) Nor
are al-Mutawakkil, al-Hākim and Tīpū Sultān to be looked upon as typical missionaries of Islam to the exclusion of such
preachers as Mawlānā Ibrāhīm, the
apostle of Java, Khwājah Mu‘īn al-Dīn Chishtī in India and
countless others who won converts to the
Muslim faith by peaceful means alone.
But though a clear distinction can be
drawn between conversion as the result of persecution and a
peaceful propaganda by means of methods of persuasion, it is not so
easy to ascertain the motives that have induced the convert to change
his faith, or to discover whether the missionary has been wholly
animated by a love of souls and by the high ideal set forth in the
first paragraph of this chapter. Both in Christianity and
Islam there have been at all times earnest souls to whom their religion has been
the supreme reality of their lives, and this
absorbing interest in matters of the
spirit has found expression in that zeal for the communication of cherished
truths and for the domination of doctrines and systems they have deemed
perfect, which constitutes the vivifying force of missionary movements,— and there have likewise been those without the
pale, who have responded to their
appeal and have embraced the new
faith with a like fervour. But, on the other hand, Islam—like Christianity—has reckoned among its
adherents many persons to whom ecclesiastical institutions have been merely
instruments of a political policy or forms of social organisation, to be accepted either as
disagreeable necessities or as
convenient solutions of problems that they do not care to think out for themselves; such persons may likewise be found among the converts of either
faith. Thus both Christianity and
Islam have added to the number of their followers by methods and under
conditions—social, political and
economic—which have no connection with such
a thirst for souls as animates the true missionary. Moreover, the annals of missionary enterprise
frequently record the admission of
converts without any attempt to analyse
the motives that have led them to change their faith, and especially for the history of Muslim missions there is a
remarkable poverty of material in this respect, since Muslim literature is singularly poor in those records of conversions that occupy such a large place in
the literature of the Christian church. Accordingly,
in the following sketch
of the missionary activity of Islam, it has not always been possible to discover whether
political, social, economic or purely religious motives have determined conversion, though occasional reference can be
made to the operation of one or the other influence.
--------------------------------------------------------
[1] - A note on Mr.
Lyall's article: "Missionary Religions." Fortnightly Review, July, 1874.
2 - Reclus, vol. v. p, 433; Gasztowtt, p. 320 sqq.
3- This misinterpretation of the Muslim wars of conquest has arisen from
the assumption that wars waged for the extension of Muslim domination over the
lands of the unbelievers implied that the aim in view was their conversion.
Goldziher has well pointed out this distinction in his Vorlesungen ũber den
Islam : '' Was Muḥammed zünachst in seinem arabischen Umkreise getan, das
hinterlässt er als Testament für die Zukunft seiner Gemeinde: Bekämpfung der
Ungläubigen, die Ausbreitung nicht so sehr des Glaubens als seiner Machtsphäre,
die die Machtsphäre Allahs ist. Es ist dabei den Kämpfern des Islams zunächst
nicht so sehr um Bekehrung als um Unterwerfung
der Ungläubigen zu tun." (p. 25.)
4-See Enhardi Fuldensis Annales, A.D. 777. "Saxones post multas cædes et varia bella afflicti, tandem christiani
effecti, Francorum dicioni subduntur." G. H. Pertz: Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, vol. i. p. 349. (See also pp. 156, 159.)
5-" Turn zelo propagandæ fidei succensus,
barbara regna iusto certamine aggressus, devictas subditasque nationes
christianæ legi subiugavit." (Breviarium Romanum. Iun. 19.)
6- Mathurin Veyssière de la Croze: Histoire du Christianisme des Indes,
pp- 529-531. (The Hague, 1724.)
7-Revue de 1'Histoire des Religions, vol. xi. p. 89.
8- Konrad Maurer: Die Bekehrung des norwegischen Stammes zum
Christenthume, vol. i. p. 284. (München, 1855.)
9- Jean, Sire dc Joinville:
Histoire de Saint Louis, ed, N. de Wailly p. 30. (§ 53).
10- Severus, p. 191 (ll.
21-22).
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