MISSIONARY EXPANSION OF ISLAM IN INDIA
Keywords:
Mission, IslamAbstract
Islam is a missionary religion and every Muslim is a missionary of his faith. Members of a missionary religion cannot rest satisfied until what they believe to be the truth is accepted as the truth by all members of the human family. This task of spreading the truth and converting unbelievers is raised to the status of a sacred duty in a missionary religion by its founder himself. It is this missionary propagation of the truth of their religion that has inspired the Muslims to carry with them the message of Islam to the people of every land into which they penetrated through conquest, trade or immigration. The missionary spirit of Islam manifests itself in all its aspects in the Indian subcontinent which has one-fourth of the total Muslim population of the world. The non-Muslim historians generally exaggerate the so called "forced conversions", On the other hand, some of the Muslim scholars naturally try to ever emphasize the persuasive and peaceful means used by the Muslim missionaries and mystics to propagate Islam in India. An attempt is made in this paper to bring out the missionary character of Islam and then to point out some of the relevant factors that led to the astonishing growth of Islam in the Indian subcontinent.
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