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St Francis Magazine Vol 9, No 4 | August 2013
kingdom will vanish and my horses will trample your grounds and my religion will triumph over your
Kingdom. 7
This pattern was repeated when Muhammad commissioned his top general to conquer the
Arabian Peninsula.
Then the apostle sent Khalid b. al-Walid … to the B. al-Harith b. Ka’b in Najran, and ordered him to invite
them to Islam three days before he attacked them. If they accepted then he was to accept it from them; and
if they declined he was to fight them. So Khalid set out and came to them, and sent out riders in all
directions inviting the people to Islam, saying, “If you accept Islam you will be safe”, so the men accepted
Islam as they were invited.” 8
3. The goal of warfare: a judgement on an unjust nation, or fighting against those who
are compassionate and humble
It is now commonplace to accept that individuals and nations which oppress and destroy others
should face retribution for their acts. Nations which commit atrocities must be called to account.
Today the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court deal with crimes against
humanity. The origin of such bodies arose in the modern era from the concept of universal human
rights. 9 It is now accepted that nations can use military means to respond human rights abuses or
unjust actions by other nations. Nations taking responsibility for other nations has not always been
the case. In the Old Testament God himself sometimes used military means to deal with injustice.
The idea of universal human rights was expressed in the Bible from the time of Cain (Genesis
4:10-16) and continued through the prophetic stream (see Amos 1 & 2). In the Old Testament,
whole communities bore the weight of their leaders’ sins, just as modern nations do when subjected
to internationally-imposed political constraints, economic sanctions or military operations. However
there needs to be an unacceptable level of oppression before such actions are instigated. Such was
the case in the Old Testament. When the people of Egypt had enslaved and ill-treated the Israelites
for over 400 years, and benefited from their cheap labour (Genesis 15:13,14), God punished the
Egyptians with the ten plagues (Exodus 7-12). This redemptive act was a judgement on Egypt
(Exodus 6:6; 7:4) and its gods (Exodus 12:12). So when God promised Abraham that his descendants
would return to Canaan, he indicated that the time of that return would be once the sins “of the
Amorites had reached their full measure” (Gen 15:16). The actions of the Israelite armies were a
retribution for widespread Canaanite practices such as child sacrifice (Deuteronomy 12:31; 18:9,10).
Moreover these same conditions applied to the Israelites. They were warned:
But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do
any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you,
and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations
that were before you. (Leviticus 18:26-28)
Jesus informed the Jews of his day: “I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a nation producing the fruits of it” (Matthew 21:43 RSV). Remaining in the promised
land, in the purposes of God, was conditional on behaving justly.
Islam did not see the expansion of Islam as a struggle against injustice. Muslims are told in the
Qur’an to “fight against the people of the Book until they feel themselves subdued and pay jizya”
(Qur’an 9:29). The reason is not because the people of the Book were unjust or oppressive. Rather
Christians are described in the Qur’an as the best friends of Muslims; they are not proud, but are
compassionate (Qur’an 5:82; 57:27). Christians, along with Muslims and Jews, have a law and a clear
way to follow, attaining salvation, and they should judge themselves by the gospel (Qur’an 5:47;
2:62; 5:69). Although the Qur’an claims that all three religions worship the same God (Qur’an
7 Ahmed Hamoud Al-Maamiry Oman and Ibadhism (Lancers Press, New Delhi, 1980) p. 23.
8 Ibn Ishaq Sirat Rasul Allah, p. 645.
9 Significantly only one country of the 58 nations making up the United Nations in 1945 refused to sign the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. That country was Saudi Arabia, the place where Islam originated.
John W. Wilson Christianity Alongside Islam (Melbourne: Acorn Press, 2010) p. 201.
St Francis Magazine is published by Arab Vision and Interserve 45