Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 51of Muslims for self-defence. If wars ensued betweenthem and their Meccan enemy, the responsibility did notlie with Muslims. The slender grounds on whichChristian nations today declare war against one anotherare well known. If half of what the Meccans did toMuslims is done today to a European people, they wouldfeel justified in going to war. When the people of onecountry organize on a large scale the killing of another,when one people compels another to leave their homes,does it not give the victims the right to make war? AfterMuslims had migrated to Medina, no further ground wasneeded for them to declare war on the Meccans. But theProphet sa declared no war. He showed tolerance andconfined his defensive activities to reconnaissance. TheMeccans, however, continued to irritate and harass theMuslims. They excited the people of Medina againstthem and interfered with their right of pilgrimage. Theychanged their normal caravan routes and started goingthrough tribal areas around Medina, to rouse the tribesagainst the Muslims. The peace of Medina was threatened;so it was the obvious duty of Muslims to acceptthe challenge of war which the Meccans had beenthrowing down for fourteen years. Nobody under thecircumstances could question the right of Muslims toaccept this challenge.While the Prophet sa was busy reconnoitring, he wasnot neglecting the normal and spiritual needs of hisfollowing in Medina. A great majority of the people ofMedina had become Muslims, by outward profession aswell as by inward faith. Some had joined by outwardprofession only. The Prophet sa , therefore, startedinstituting the Islamic form of government in his smallfollowing. In earlier days, Arabs had settled theirdisputes by the sword and by individual violence. TheProphet sa introduced juridical procedures. Judges wereappointed to settle claims which individuals or partiesbrought against one another. Unless a judge declared aclaim to be just and true, it was not admitted. In the olddays intellectual pursuits had been looked upon with