Message of Peace - Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

MESSAGE OF PEACE 41have reached me. Thus this day, I permit them to stand up totheir persecutors and remember that a people who raise theirsword against the innocent will themselves perish by thesword. Yet, transgress not, because God does not befriendthose who transgress.This is the spirit and essence of Islamic Jihad which hasbeen maliciously portrayed in the wrong light. God isforbearing, indeed, but when the mischief of a people crossesall limits, then He does not let the transgressors go unpunished.Then He Himself creates conditions which result intheir destruction. I know not how and from where our opponentsheard that Islam was spread by the might of the sword.God in the Holy Qur’an pronounced that there is no compulsionin Islam: 25...That is: The religion of Islam does not permit any compulsionin matters of faith. Who commanded the application offorce and what were the means of coercion available to them?And again, such people as are coerced into changing theirfaith do not display such dedication and such quality of belief,that without any financial returns and despite being a merefew hundred they dare to confront the army of thousands.When the same reached the number of one thousand, theysomehow acquired the strength to defeat enemies runninginto hundreds of thousands. They readily offered their lives indefence of their faith, to be slaughtered like sheep and goats.They stamped the testimony to the truth of Islam with theirown blood. Moreover, they became so enamoured with the25. (al-Baqarah, 2:257)