ISLAM IN HISTORY — Ideological Power

countries and in those countries a large number of people entered into the fold of Islam of their own volition, the political and military powers had no role in this. The battles that took place in those days were concerned only with the army of those respective rulers and were strictly confined to the battlefield, far from the general population to affect them. People accepted Islam due to the ideological quality of Islam, and not because of its political power. The well-known Egyptologist, Sir Arthur Keith has rightly observed. He writes: ‘The Egyptians were conquered not by the sword, but by the Koran.’ (Sir Arthur Keith, a New Theory of Human Evolution, London, Watts & Co., 1950, p. 303) Similarly Islam spread in the sub-continent on a large scale, but this is attributed to the internal virtues of Islam. This reality has been acknowledged by non-Muslim scholars also. For fact, Swami Vivekanand writes: ‘It is nonsense to say that the Hindus were converted by the sword.’ (Letters of Swami Vivekanand, p. 95) Another extraordinary incident took place in the 13th century in the history of Islam. The Mongol hordes coming from the mountains entered the Muslim world. They devastated the Muslim civilization right from Samarqand to Aleppo. The spread of Islam in the sub-continent is attributed to the internal virtues of Islam. The Muslims thus lost their political glory in the 19th and the 20th century. They were in no position to achieve any objective by using force. Yet despite this position of subjugation the spread of Islam has been going on uninterrupted. Even today, people are entering the fold of Islam based on their own findings about its veracity. It would be true to say that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the entire world is faced with an ideological void. This void can be filled by Islam like it did, in the past.