Spread of Islam

What do Muslims believe about the spread of Islam during the life of the prophet Mohammed, and time period after his death?

Does Islam teach that Christians, Jews, and Pagans were converted by force or by peaceful means?

I've read the article concerning Islamic History on LI http://www.load-islam.com/artical_det.php?artical_id=413&section=indepth&subsection=Islamic history. This article contains a lot of good information about some misconceptions regarding Islam. But I have more questions regarding the actual spread of Islam and the decline of other religions.

LAA IQRA HAFFIDEEN!

Islam teaches that there is no compultion in religion and of course if its written in the quran every muslim during the time of rasullulah saws abided by this. Therefore the message was spread and those who liked it, accepted it, those who disliked it, rejected it. There was peace and unity all over. Jews/christians and muslims could co-exist wivout conflict. They followed there ways and we followed ours.

eace:

There was conquest but this was just the spead of the islamic empire the people who were conqured were never forced to embrace islam they were treated as equals in the state.

islam-truth said:

There was conquest but this was just the spead of the islamic empire the people who were conqured were never forced to embrace islam they were treated as equals in the state.

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I'm researching this topic now and interested in how you derived this information. Do Islamic articles support this theory? Where can I find it? Thanks

I think any open minded person would come to the conclusion that is a mixture of things.

Surly not all forced, surly all not of free will (Without pressure).

There would be people that cared little about religion and would do what was easiest.
There would also be those that would die before changing.

And as always, there are discrepancies between what Islam says and what some Muslims do.

The article you cited is a totally bias rebuttal of a totally bias book.
I try to get my information from sources whose prime objective is to present historically accurate facts.

wilberhum said:

I think any open minded person would come to the conclusion that is a mixture of things.

Surly not all forced, surly all not of free will (Without pressure).

There would be people that cared little about religion and would do what was easiest.
There would also be those that would die before changing.

And as always, there are discrepancies between what Islam says and what some Muslims do.

The article you cited is a totally bias rebuttal of a totally bias book.
I try to get my information from sources whose prime objective is to present historically accurate facts.

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Thanks Wilberhum. I'm finding few sources which are unbiased. Logic tells me to examine both sides of the biased information I find, and give each equal worth.

wilberhum said:

I think any open minded person would come to the conclusion that is a mixture of things.

Surly not all forced, surly all not of free will (Without pressure).

There would be people that cared little about religion and would do what was easiest.
There would also be those that would die before changing.

And as always, there are discrepancies between what Islam says and what some Muslims do.

The article you cited is a totally bias rebuttal of a totally bias book.
I try to get my information from sources whose prime objective is to present historically accurate facts.

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The article is true about the Totally Biased Book though

Abd'Majid said:

They followed there ways and we followed ours.

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Which means businesss is poor because people operate by different rules.

Hijrah said:

The article is true about the Totally Biased Book though

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Well I guess seeing half of the bias is a start.

islam-truth said:

There was conquest but this was just the spead of the islamic empire the people who were conqured were never forced to embrace islam they were treated as equals in the state.

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Yes islam supports this, the people who retained their faith just pain a tax which was called the "Jizya" which in turn brought them rights such as protection ect.

islam-truth said:

Yes islam supports this, the people who retained their faith just pain a tax which was called the "Jizya" which in turn brought them rights such as protection ect.

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Did you arrive at this belief from material within the Koran, opinions of other people, or another form information?

searchingsoul said:

Did you arrive at this belief from material within the Koran, opinions of other people, or another form information?

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Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

Surah Al-Tauba Verse 29

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It is from the Quran sis

salaam alaikum!

islam is a peacefull religion.... there is no force... so all we can do is try to talk as much about islam... as we can and explain that its religion of peace and show them that! .... it also say so in quran... that we must not force ourselves on anyone ... but try and talk , talk, talk, and explain

Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

Surah Al-Tauba Verse 29

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One of the commonly misquoted verses of the Qur'an. Please see:
Commonly Misquoted Verses and Narrations - verse 9:29

Muslims should always do proper research rather than cutting and pasting verses from the Qur'an and interpreting them according to their whims.

Astagfirullah... brother i only used that to show that jizya is an order from the quran, not that its an order to attack the people of the book

until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

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I always liked that part. No force, you just need to pay enough money to feal subdued.

The only time (during the Prophet) that the muslims went to war was strictly for the purposes of preserving Islam and it's fellow muslims. Even after the war they were very peaceful to the prisoners. They would treat them nicely, and would realease them if they taught 10 illiterate muslims how to read and write... By this time the prisoner would see the followers of Islam and conversate with them and realize that Islam is the truth and would usually convert themselves.

Most of the spread of Islam was done with reasoning and dialoging with others. The Quran is a book of reason, even though you might not be able to comprehend everything because of how deep the Quran goes, it never goes against human reason... whereas you can see the basic Christian religion which believes in the trinity that goes against human reasoning... human reasoning believes 1=1 and 3=3... where the trinity tells you that 3=1 and 1=3.

Kidman

Abd'Majid said:

Astagfirullah... brother i only used that to show that jizya is an order from the quran, not that its an order to attack the people of the book

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You're right, I apologise for implying that you were misquoting the verse. I meant to speak about people in general.

searchingsoul said:

What do Muslims believe about the spread of Islam during the life of the prophet Mohammed, and time period after his death?

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Peace,
I don't think any muslim would think that Islam was spread by sword/violence. It just doesnt sound logical. It could not have been possible to use force to convert people over a period of 1400+ years. Don't you think?

A well known scholar in US once brought up this topic in his lecture and he mentioned that during the whole lifetime of Prophet Muhammed(SAW), the total number of people killed in war were around 1300+, of which 700+ were muslims and the rest were non-believers. (If you want proof or further discuss on this, I could help you contact the scholar himself). Another account from (http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/prophet/profbio.html) says its far less:

"In all these "wars," extending over a period of ten years, the non-Muslims lost on the battlefield only about 250 persons killed, and the Muslim losses were even less."


During the last hajj of Prophet (SAW) there were tens of thousands of people listening to his lecture. Muhammed SAW didn't possess the magical powers that were bestowed upon Jesus(as) and hence he (SAW) couldnt have attracted people with his magical prowess. So what could have possibly "forced" tens of thousands of people to become muslims when only around 250 non-believers were killed in wars in a span of 13 years? If you read the story of Prophet SAW, you will find that his personality and the teachings of Islam brought people to the fold of Islam. Wouldnt women like the idea of the right to vote and a share in property 1400+ years back, given that the west gave such rights only 100 years back? Wouldn't slaves 1400+ years back like the idea of civil rights?

After the time of prophet (SAW), the immediate successors (caliphs) were no different. I can provide you with more information if you want.

Long after the death of Prophet SAW was the popular invasion of Persia and Middle east by the Mongols. Middle East by this time was a completely Islamic state. The mongols annihilated the whole of persia as you might know. They could have very well established a new religion by force if they had wanted to. Now what could have possibly *forced* the ruthless and powerful mongols to become muslims ?

There might have been a few muslim rulers at a far later period that (I am unaware of) could have possibly used force. I can't discount that theory considering the fact that Islam spread far across Asia, Africa and Europe. But that could have never been a major contributing factor to the spread of Islam.

Even if we generalize this question to "were all religions spread by sword?", the answer would be YES and NO. There have always been some crazy rulers who *might* have used force to convert people. Its something common for most religions.

searchingsoul said:

Does Islam teach that Christians, Jews, and Pagans were converted by force or by peaceful means?

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I don't seem to understand this question. If you could elaborate, I could help you find answers. Logically anything done by using force would never last forever.

I don't think any muslim would think that Islam was spread by sword/violence.

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I don't think any Non-Muslim would think that Islam was not spread by sword/violence.
By the same token, there had to be many peaceful conversions.
I find it totally illogical to think that it was all one or the other.