54. No Wars for propagating Islam

54. No Wars for propagating Islam

In the Quranic verses 2:193, and 8:39, it has been said that let the Muslims fight (the non - believers) till the chaos came to an end and till the 'Deen', which would mean religion, gets established.

According to this interpretation an impression may be created among others that Islam encourages conversion to Islam by force. It has been clearly said that Islam does not encourage coercion (Quran 2:256, 10:99, 9:6, 109:6) and the word-formation “fight them till they accept Islam” is misinterpreted.

Moreover during the time of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), non-Muslim especially the Jews and Christians who did not convert to Islam had been living as Jews and Christians. So, this fact also disallows the possibility of interpreting “fight them till they accept Islam” in negative sense, literally.

Besides if we study the end portion of the above Quranic verse we can understand that the above said interpretation is wrong. Those Quranic verses conclude that if they ceased war they should not be transgressed. Hence, according to this command also, it becomes certain that such interpretations are wrong.

The Arabic word 'Deen' is a word which has got several meanings, such as religion, wages, award, judgment and authority.

While interpreting the above two Quranic verses 2:193 and 8:39 it would be proper if we interpreted the Arabic word 'Deen' as authority. The idea behind such interpretation (authority) is that encounters should be continued till authority was captured.