A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád'/Introduction/13

[Sidenote: Expedition to Tabúk to check the advancing enemy. No war took place.]

13. The expedition of Mecca, already described, ended in a submission and compromise without any resort to arms; that against Tabúk was undertaken, as it is admitted by all writers, Moslem and European, for purely defensive purposes. Mohammad was much alarmed on this occasion owing to the threatening news of a foreign invasion against the Moslem commonwealth. The following verses of the Ninth Sura are most probably directed towards the Romans and their Jewish and Christian allies, if not towards the Jews of Khyber:&mdash;


 * 29. "Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in God or in the last day, and who forbid not that which God and His Apostle have forbidden, and who profess not the profession of the Truth, until they pay tribute out of hand, and they be humbled."


 * 124. "Believers wage war against such of the unbelievers as are your neighbours, and let them assuredly find rigour in you, and know that God is with those who fear him."&mdash;Sura IX.

Mohammad returned without any war, and there was no occasion to carry out the injunctions contained in these verses.

Mohammad had taken great pains, according to the severity of the impending danger, to induce the Moslems to go to war in their own defence. But as the season was hot, and the journey a long one, some of them were very backward in doing so.

There is a very violent denunciation against those who on various false pretences held back on the occasion.