The Revolution of the Prophet

Contemporary Muslim writers and speakers are wrongly eulogistic in comparing the Prophet’s revolution with modern non-Islamic revolutions. They point with pride to the fact that only a thousand people died in the Islamic revolution, while in the Russian revolution of 1917 alone; thirteen million people lost their lives. The democratic revolution in France also took a heavy toll, which ran into thousands. The Muslims like this comparison because it gratifies their pride. But there is another comparison to be made here, which they have never considered. Perhaps their failure to give thought to this second comparison is simply a way of avoiding admonishment, for no one ever likes being admonished. It would mean taking the number of dead in the initial Islamic missionary drive and comparing it with the toll that modern-day Islamic movements have exacted; in other words, seeing how many people died in the original Islamic revolution and how many have died in Muslim revolutionary attempts of modern times. The 20th century has seen grand Islamic revolutionary movements and great “holy crusades” in the Muslim world. Just as Muslims compare the Prophet’s Islamic revolution with modern, non-Islamic, secular revolutions, should they look at their movements in the light of the revolution of the Prophet and see how they stand up to the comparison? Were the Muslims to take this comparison, they would be startled to find that their movements are, in relation to that