“But see the mercy with which he regarded the brokenhearted, for, after seizing the rai, he set him free again. He destroyed the temples of the idola… - Amir Khusrau

The tongue of the sword of the Khalifa of the time, which is the tongue of the flame of Islam, has imparted light to the entire darkness of Hindustan by the illumination of its guidance… and on the right hand and on the left hand the army has conquered from sea to sea, and several capitals of the gods of the Hindus in which Satanism had prevailed since the time of the Jinns, have been demolished. All these impurities of infidelity have been cleansed by the Sultan's destruction of idol temples, beginning with his first expedition against Deogir, so that the flames of the light of the law illumine all these unholy countries, and places for the criers to prayers are exalted on high, and prayers are read in mosques. Allah be praised!

We find the Muslim historians going into raptures as they describe scenes of desecration and destruction. For Amîr Khusrû it was always an occasion to show off the power of his poetic imagination. When Jalãlu’d-Dîn Khaljî wrought havoc at Jhain, “A cry rose from the temples as if a second Mahmûd had taken birth”. The temples in the environs of Delhi were “bent in prayers” and “made to do prostration”, by Alãu’d-Dîn Khaljî. When the temple of Somnath was destroyed and its debris thrown into the sea towards the west, the poet rose to his full height. “So the temple of Somnãth,” he wrote, “was made to bow towards the Holy Mecca, and the temple lowered its head and jumped into the sea, so you may say that the building first said its prayers and then had a bath.” ... One wonders whether the poet of Islam is being honoured or slandered when he is presented in our own times as the pioneer of Secularism.

The fire-worshipping Rai, when he learnt that his idol temple was likely to be converted into a mosque, despatched Kisu Mal to ascertain the strength and circumstances of the Musulmans, and he returned with such alarming accounts that the Rai next morning despached Balak Deo Naik to the royal canopy to represent that “your slave Billal Deo is ready to swear allegiance to the mighty emperor, like Laddar Deo and Ram Deo, and whatever the Sulaiman of the time may order, I am ready to obey. If you desire horses like demons, and elephants like afrits, and valuables like those of Deogir, they are all present. If you wish to destroy the four walls of this fort, they are, as they stand, no obstacle to your advance. The fort is the fort of the king; take it.” The commander replied that he was sent with the object of converting him to Muhammadanism, or of making him a Zimmi.. and subject to pay tax, or of slaying him, if neither of these terms were assented to. When the Rai received this reply, he said he was ready to give up all he possessed, except his sacred thread.