The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c5.s3.8

c5.s3.8

Islam outstripped Christianity in contributing to large-scale killings in wars waged for religion or persecution of heretics. Each human being has an idea or image of God in his mind. Consequently, there can be as many Gods as there are human beings. Even according to one outstanding Sufi, the paths by which its followers seek God are in number as the souls of men.³² In view of this it is presumptuous to claim that there is only one God or there are many Gods or there is no God at all. And yet in the name of One God, and at that Merciful and Compassionate, what cruelties have not been committed in the history of Islam? Arabia was converted during the life-time of Muhammad. Immediately after the death of Muhammad, to borrow the rhetoric of Edward Gibbon, in the ten years of the administration of (Caliph) Omar (634-644) the Saracens reduced to his obedience thirty-six thousand cities or castles, destroyed four thousand churches or temples of the unbelievers, and edified fourteen hundred moschs (mosques) for the exercise of the religion of Muhammad.³³ In these unparalleled feats the number of the killed cannot be computed. Since many pages in this book will be devoted to Muslim exertions in their endeavour to spread Islam in India we may feel contented here to state that in this scenario religion and religious wars became the very soul of thought, action and oppression in the Middle Ages.