Was Islam spread by the sword?

In Arabic, the word jihad literally means “struggle” or “striving.” It is related to the word, jahada, defined as “exerting one’s utmost power, efforts, endeavors or ability. In the Quran, the word is often part of a larger phrase “jihad in the path of God.”

There are several kinds of jihad recognized within Islam: “Jihad of the heart,” which is the struggle against oneself; “jihad of the tongue” or “jihad of the pen,” which involve persuasion, exhortation and instruction for the cause of Islam and “jihad of the sword."


In Islam, "Jihad by the sword" literary means to fight against evil and unjust for the purpose of self-defense. Islam comes from the root word ‘salam’, which means peace. It also means submitting one’s will to God. Thus, Islam is a religion of peace, which is acquired by submitting one’s will to the will of the Supreme Creator, Allah SWT.

Muslims were the ruler of Arabia for 1400 years. For a few years the British ruled, and for a few years the French ruled. Overall, the Muslims ruled Arabia for 1400 years.

Yet today, there are 14 million Arabs who are Coptic Christians i.e. Christians since generations. If the Muslims had used the sword there would not have been a single Arab who would have remained a Christian.

The Muslims ruled India for about a thousand years. If they wanted, they had the power of converting each and every non-Muslim of India to Islam by using the sword.

Today more than 80% of the population of India are non-Muslims. All these non-Muslim Indians are bearing witness today that Islam was not spread by the sword.

Indonesia is a country that has the maximum number of Muslims in the world. The majority of people in Malaysia are Muslims too. May one ask, “Which Muslim army went to Indonesia and Malaysia?”

With which sword was Islam spread? Even if Muslims had wanted to, they could not use it to spread Islam because the Qur’an clearly says:

“Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from
error.” (QS 2:256)



Wallahu'alam