THE MANIFESTATION OF RELIGION

~ 72 ~ of ideology, such a revolution would be brought about as would establish the ideological supremacy of Islam forever. God has already brought it into existence potentially: believers have only to tap and convert this potential into reality. The aim of the revolution brought about by the Prophet and his companions in the seventh century is stated to be izhar ad-din in the Qur’an: They desire to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths: but Allah seeks only to perfect His light, however much the disbelievers may abhor it (9:32-33). Izhar in Arabic means dominance/ascendancy/ supremacy. Here izhar ad-din signifies intellectual and ideological dominance, not political dominance. This means that in intellectual and ideological respects, God’s religion assumes ascendancy over all other ideologies and religions for all time. Granting ideological ascendancy to God’s religion was no simple matter. It amounted to the writing of history afresh. For although God’s religion had