The External Target

2. The Call to God and Unity ~ 45 ~ lost this very nobility of character in their detachment from the cause of propagating God’s message among the people. Very soon after this military action had been taken against the Romans, in the times of the first pious caliph, the Persians (Sassanids) turned hostile to the Muslims forcing them to resort to confrontation. This afforded Muslims a large sphere of Islamic action spreading over Asia, Africa and Europe, as these two empires, the Roman and the Persian, dominated most of the populated world. This stance taken by the Muslims against the Romans and Iranians was not aimed at any political gain or territorial expansion: its sole purpose was the propagation of the message of Islam. Muslims, imbued with a divine instinct, had left their homes to convince people to give up the worship of their fellow men and to become true worshippers of God. Past events are testimony to the fact that both Rome and Persia were the main targets for the propagation of the message of God, but the aggression demonstrated by the two empires forced Muslims to use military power against them. There