> From:  Aviroce - view profile
>
> "Others allege the low morality of the religion and the sensual
> paradise it promises as a sufficient cause for the zeal of its
> followers: but even were these admitted to the full, no religion has
> ever gained a lasting hold upon the souls of men by the force of its
> sensual permissions and fleshy promises... "
>
> For example, according to the Talmud, fornication with three year
> olds,
>
> boys and girls are permitted.  Yet Judaism in the present sense never
> spread.  Judaism in Islam's sense, according to the Koran, does not
> exist.
>
> Islam spread because it respects individual rights and privileges and
> opens a direct appeal to the All-Mighty Allah without intermediary
> and
> Allah is the only power to prostrate oneself  to.  Islam has given
> the
> human race a sense of dignity unsurpassed.  It depends on mutual
> respect.  Transgressors are to be punished.  Islam is the religion of
> good health, cleanliness and social order.  The Prophet and Judge
> Mohammed is the greatest leader mankind has ever lived.  Islam is
> still
>
> spreading although Muslims are weaker than the West who is inclined
> to
> colonize them and exploit them.  Islam's social order and laws are
> inground in every prayer Muslims perform.  Mind you that these
> prayers
> are by themselves an exercise for a sound body.  Islam is not fake.
> Islam addresses human development and respects it.  No wonder even
> non-Muslims flowered intellectually and were accepted accordingly.
>

>>From Al-Mutanabbi to Ibn Al-Muqafa'a, Muslims respect their works.  The

>
> first pretended to be a prophet, that is what his name means, and yet
> wrote the most penetrating and moving and invigorating and patriotic
> poetry ever written by Arabs.  The second like his name says that he
> is
>
> hiding behind a mask, wrote the most creative work on animals taking
> human political and social roles.  Even Jews were accepted to become
> doctors, engineers, professors.  Christians had similar plight.
> Taxes
> had to be paid by everyone even Muslims.
>
> ***************************************************************************­­
> *******************************
>
> From:  Muslims Are Good Folks - view profile
> Date:  Tues, Dec 19 2006 11:09 am
> Email:   "Muslims Are Good Folks" yahoo.com>
>
> How Was Islam Spread
>
> Islam, in the tenth century, was the main religion, or at least, the
> religion of the majority of nations in an area covering more than
> half
> of the civilized world stretching over three continents from the
> Pyrenees and Siberia in West and North Europe to the farthest end of
> Asia, up to China and New Guinea in the East; from Morocco in North
> Africa to the southern tip of Africa, covering two-thirds of the
> African continent. It is one of the most striking facts of human
> history that the spread of Islam over such a vast area took place
> within three centuries. Most striking of all, within half a century
> after the Hijrah (Prophet Muhammad's Migration from Makkah to
> Al-Madeenah), Islam had already conquered the whole of North Africa
> from Egypt to Morocco, all the Middle Eastern lands from Yemen to
> Caucasia and from Egypt to the lands beyond Transoxiana (portion of
> Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan
> and
>
> southwest Kazakhstan). It was during the reign of the third Caliph
> 'Uthmaan  that the Muslim envoys reached the Chinese Palace, where
> they
>
> were welcomed enthusiastically, an important event marking, according
> to the historians, the beginning of Islam's entry into this country.
> There are many reasons why nations have been, from past to the
> present,
>
> so ready to embrace Islam, what is pointed out by Muhammad Asad, a
> Jewish convert to Islam, probably being the foremost:
>
> Islam appears like a perfect work of architecture
>
> Islam appears to me like a perfect work of architecture. All its
> parts
> are harmoniously conceived to complement and support each other,
> nothing lacking, with the result of an absolute balance and solid
> composure. Everything in the teaching and postulate of Islam is in
> its
> proper place. (Islam at the Crossroads, p.5)
>
> Islam was spread by force of the sword
>
> Most of Western writers, especially under the influence of the
> Church,
> have never failed to accuse Islam of spreading by force of the sword.
> The causes of this prejudice lie mainly in the fact that the spread
> of
> Islam has often occurred at the expense of Christianity. While Islam
> has, for centuries, obtained numerous conversions from Christianity
> without much effort or organized missionary activities, Christianity
> has almost never been able to achieve conversions from Islam in spite
> of sophisticated means and well-organized missionary activities, and
> it
>
> has always been at a disadvantage in its competition with Islam for
> fourteen centuries. This has caused its missionaries and most of the
> orientalists to develop a complex within themselves by depicting
> Islam
> and introducing it as a regressive, vulgar religion of savage people.
> The same attitude has unfortunately maintained toward the Noble
> Prophet
>
> of Islam. This is clear in the confessions of some unbiased writers
> of
> the West: According to P. Bayle,
>
> Muslims, according to the principles of their faith, are under an
> obligation to use force for the purpose of bringing other religions
> to
> ruin (probably he means Jihaad which is not for the purpose he
> suggests); yet, in spite of that, they have been tolerating other
> religions for some centuries past. The Christians have not been given
> orders to do anything but preach and instruct, yet, despite this,
> from
> time immemorial they have been exterminating by fire and sword all
> those who are not of their religion [...] We may feel certain that if
> Western Christians, instead of the Saracens and the Turks, had won
> the
> dominion over Asia, there would be today not a trace left of the
> Greek
> Church, and that they would never have tolerated Muhammadanism as the
> 'infidels' have tolerated Christianity there. We (Christians) enjoy
> the
>
> fine advantage of being far better versed than others in the art of
> killing, bombarding and exterminating the Human Race." (Bayle P.,
> Dictionary, 'the article Mahomed', 1850)
>
> To what is Islam indebted its unequaled spread?
>
> Islam is indebted its unequaled spread to its religious content and
> values, which is confessed by all objective Western intellectuals:
>
> Many have sought to answer the questions of why the triumph of Islam
> was so speedy and complete? Why have so many millions embraced the
> religion of Islam and scarcely a hundred ever recanted? Some have
> attempted to explain the first overwhelming success of Islam by the
> argument of the Sword. They forget Carlyle's laconic reply. First get
> your sword. You must win men's hearts before you can induce them to
> imperil their lives for you; and the first conquerors of Islam must
> have been made Muslims before they were made fighters on the Path of
> God. Others allege the low morality of the religion and the sensual
> paradise it promises as a sufficient cause for the zeal of its
> followers: but even were these admitted to the full, no religion has
> ever gained a lasting hold upon the souls of men by the force of its
> sensual permissions and fleshy promises...
>
> In all these explanations the religion itself is left out of the
> question. Decidedly, Islam itself was the main cause for its triumph.
> Islam not only was at once accepted (by many peoples and races) by
> Arabia, Syria, Persia, Egypt, Northern Africa and Spain, at its first
> outburst; but, with the exception of Spain, it has never lost its
> vantage ground; it has been spreading ever since it came into being.
> Admitting the mixed causes that contributed to the rapidity of the
> first swift spread of Islam, they do not account for the duration of
> Islam. There must be something in the religion itself to explain its
> persistence and spread, and to account for its present hold over so
> large of a proportion of the dwellers on the earth... Islam has
> stirred
>
> an enthusiasm that has never been surpassed. Islam has had its
> martyrs,
>
> its self-tormentors, its recluses, who have renounced all that life
> offered and have accepted death with a smile for the sake of the
> faith
> that was in them. (Stanley Lane-Poole, Study in a Mosque, pp.86-89)
>
> A. J. Arberry has also pointed out that the reason for the spread of
> Islam is Islam itself and its religious values. (Aspects of Islamic
> Civilization, p.12) He states:
>
> The rapidity of the spread of Islam, noticeably through extensive
> provinces which had been long Christian, is a crucial fact of history
> [...] The sublime rhetoric of the Quran, that inimitable symphony,
> the
> very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy". (M. Pickhtal,
> The
> Meaning of the Glorious Quran, p.vii)
>
> Arberry continues:
>
> This, and the urgency of the simple message carried, holds the key to
> the mystery of one of the greatest cataclysms in the history of
> religion. When all military, political and economic factors have been
> exhausted, the religious impulse must still be recognized as the most
> vital and enduring.
>
> Brockelman, who is usually very unsympathetic and partial, also
> recognizes the religious values of Islam as the main factor for the
> spread of Islam. (History of the Islamic Peoples, p.37) Rosenthal
> makes
>
> his point as follows:
>
> The more important factor for the spread of Islam is religious law of
> Islam (Sharee'ah which is an inclusive, all-embracing,
> all-comprehensive way of thinking and living) which was designed to
> cover all manifestations of life. (Political Thought in Medieval
> Islam,
>
> p.21)
>
> The exemplary life-style of Muslim individuals
>
> Besides many other reasons which are responsible for the spread of
> Islam, it is the exemplary life-style and unceasing efforts of
> individual Muslims to transmit the message of Islam throughout the
> world which lie at the root of the conquest of the hearts by Islam.
> Islamic universalism is closely associated with the principle of Amr
> Bil-Ma'roof (enjoining the good) for Islam is to be spread by Muslims
> by means of Amr Bil-Ma'roof. This principle seeks to convey the
> message
>
> of Islam to all human beings in the world and to establish a model
> Islamic community on a world-wide basis. The Islamic community is
> introduced by the Quran as a model community: "Thus, We have made of
> you a nation justly balanced, that you might be witnesses (models)
> for
> the peoples, and the Messenger has been a witness for you." [Quran,
> 2:143]
>
> A Muslim or the Muslim community as a whole thus has a goal to
> achieve:
>
> This is the spread of Islam, conveying the truth to the remotest
> corners of the world, the eradication of oppression and tyranny and
> the
>
> establishment of justice all over the world. This requires the Muslim
> to lead an exemplary life, and thus the moral and ethical values of
> Islam have usually played an important part in the spread of Islam.
> Here follow the impressions of the influence of Islamic ethics on
> black
>
> Africans had by a Western writer of the nineteenth century:
>
> How does Islam change the nations that have accepted it?
>
> As to the effects of Islam when first embraced by a Negro tribe, can
> there, when viewed as a whole, be any reasonable doubt? Polytheism
> disappears almost instantaneously; sorcery, with its attendant evils,
> gradually dies away; human sacrifice becomes a thing of the past. The
> general moral elevation is most marked; the natives begin for the
> first
>
> time in their history to dress, and that neatly. Squalid filth is
> replaced by some approach to personal cleanliness; hospitality
> becomes
> a religious duty; drunkenness, instead of the rule, becomes a
> comparatively rare exception...chastity is looked upon as one of the
> highest, and becomes, in fact, one of the commoner virtues. It is
> idleness that henceforward degrades, and industry that elevates,
> instead of the reverse. Offences are henceforward measured by a
> written
>
> code instead of the arbitrary caprice of a chieftain - a step, as
> everyone will admit, of vast importance in the progress of a tribe.
> The
>
> Mosque gives an idea of architecture at all events higher than any
> the
> Negro has yet had. A thirst for literature is created and that for
> works of science and philosophy as well as for commentaries on the
> Quran. (Quoted from Waitz by B. Smith, Muhammad and Muhammadanism,
> pp.42-43)
>
> The tolerance of Islam
>
> The tolerance of ...
>
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>
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