Islam_in_Focus_text

The attempt to interpret the Muslim contacts with non-
Muslims in terms of economic needs may sound novel and
worthy of sympathy, but it does not seem to have much truth
in it or carry much bearing on serious scholarship. The least
reservation that can be made as regards this attempt is that it
i s so far from being satisfactory and complete. There is so
much vet to be done in terms of research, investigation, anal-
ysis and comparison. Until this is done no critic has any mo-
ral right to pass his own theoretical assumptions as valid or
binding. This presents another gracious invitation of Islam to
all critics to make more serious attempts to search for the
truth.
5. There is not much need to take as serious the opin-
ions of those who consider the Muslim wars in terms of
plunder and loot. What can be more casual or more stereo-
typed than such an opinion? It is a short cut in the field of
scholarship and an easy way out of some intellectual and
moral problems, but it is so far from being the truth. The
same questions of points 3 and 4 above can be asked again,
just to find out how much loot the Muslim adventurers took
or sent back to Arabia, and how many of their men returned
home with spoils. This is not to mention the flourishing, the
renaissance and prosperity of the "looted" territories under
these very "iooters". It is not even to mention the harsh per-
secutions and heavy losses of lives and properties inflicted
on Muslims. or the provocation and threats hurled at them. It