Islam and Christianity

Prophet, the religions previous to him must be invalidated.
Because Jewry refused Christianity, various disasters befell on
them, and they suffered humiliation and degradation. For the
advent of a new Prophet signifies the fact that the previous
religions have been spoilt. On the other hand, the advent of
Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ did not abrogate Christianity, nor did
various disasters befall on Christians, which had been the case with
Jews, but, on the contrary, Christianity spread all the wider.
Despite all the Muslims’ efforts, massacres and churchdestructions,
(for instance, four thousand churches were destroyed
in the time of caliph ’Umar,) Christians are daily increasing in
number and improving in welfare, whereas Muslims are suffering
indignities, becoming poorer and poorer, and losing their value
and importance world-wide.”
Is-haq Efendi ‘rahmatullâhi ’aleyh’ gives the following answer
to the priest’s denigrations:
First of all, the information and the numerical figures provided
by the priest run counter to facts. Qur’ân al-kerîm, Islam’s Holy
Book, contains the injunction, “There is no compulsion in the
religion.” Although Muhammad ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’
never had recourse to compulsion or threat as he communicated
the Islamic religion, the number of people who embraced Islam
willingly and of their own accord increased in a short time. The
statements made by SALE, a Christian historian and a translator
of the Qur’ân al-kerîm, corroborate our argument. [George Sale
died in 1149 [1736 C.E.]. He was a British priest. He translated the
Qur’ân al-kerîm into English in 1734. He gave detailed
information about Islam in the introduction of his work.] He
states as follows in his Translation of the Koran, which was
printed in 1266 [1850 C.E.]: “The Hegira had not taken place yet
when Medina already did not contain a house without Muslim
residents.” That means to say that urban people who had not even
seen the face of a sword accepted Islam willingly only owing to the
greatness and trueness of this religion and the nonpareil literary
perfection of the Qur’ân al-kerîm. The following numerical
figures are an indication of Islam’s rapid spread. By the time
Muhammad ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ passed away, the
number of Muslims was one hundred and twenty-four thousand
(124,000). Four years after the passing away of the Messenger of
Allah ‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’, ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu
’anh’ sent a forty-thousand-strong Muslim army, and that army
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