Was Islam spread by the sword?

No. The Holy Qur’an forbids all compulsion in faith, and Islam spread through its message and the example of Muslims, not through force.

To ask how a religion spread, we must look at its early days. Later, kings conquered lands in the name of many religions. But that is politics and not the spread of faith. When a Christian empire founds colonies, it is an empire that is spreading, not Christianity.

In the early days of the true religions the picture is always the same. The force was on the side of their opponents. The first Christians were persecuted for around three hundred years, and still their message won over the Roman Empire. The first Muslims in Mecca were weak and tormented too, and still more and more people accepted Islam.

In the lifetime of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) no battle was fought to bring people into Islam. When Mecca was finally taken without bloodshed, he declared a general pardon for his former enemies. No one was forced to become a Muslim. Only afterwards did people come to Islam of their own free will.

Later too, conquered peoples were not killed if they remained non-Muslims. They lived in peace under the law of the land. In Medina, non-Muslims could even choose under which law their disputes were settled. In large parts of the world, such as Indonesia, Islam arrived without any war at all, simply through the example of Muslims.

The verses above make clear why this must be so. Faith is a matter of the heart. A heart cannot be conquered with a sword. A faith that is forced would be worthless before God.